Hermione
by QueenofBloodandTears
Summary: Hermione was Helen's daughter, the woman who cursed Sparta into disarray when she followed her conscience and her heart. Her daughter sparked war between two men. Millenia later history repeats itself.
1. Chapter 1

Thanks to everyone who reviewed my other fics. I won't leave them unattended but I couldn't wait to start this. Please leave a review!

* * *

Mary was clever. She figured if she married, even a heretic, she would get a chance of having a chance what she always wanted. _What her mother wanted_. Philip of Bavaria was not a super rich man, he was not the handsomest man she met, but he was fair enough and strong enough and he ruled a dukedom all by himself.

Her father promised she would marry him. The letter came by in June that the Queen had summoned her. Anne of Cleves was direct but gentle. "Princess Mary" she began "The Duke has left. Your father did not approve."

Mary said nothing. When she spoke she was composed "Well it is for the best. Our religions were different and we could've never gotten along anyway. I am glad he is gone and the I am thankful the king was wise in his decision."

When she was out of the queen's chambers she started crying. Mary had one chance. ONE chance to be happy and her father took it away. Damn him!

* * *

Fast forward six months later. Her father was still married to that whore he dumped Anne of Cleves for and now she had come complaining that she didn't respect her.

"Lady Mary I have noticed." There was a great emphasis in the 'I' "that you don't respect me."

"If I have failed to respect my lady then I apologize but I do as I please as the King's eldest daughter."

"As the King's wife you must respect me. Everyone at court talks about it. You show lady Anne more respect."

"Lady Anne is deserves every bit respect. The King's sister is an honorable lady who shows dutiful court behavior and etiquette." Katherine smirked and rolled her eyes, looking at the ceiling then back at Mary giving her that chuckle that her ladies echoed as their eyes also gave their queen's message that they didn't care and she was boring them. "As the King's wife, a Queen must show every ounce of decorum for her body is sacred and must remain so for the King and the future of his dynasty and for what I can see your neither carrying."

That hit a nerve but Katherine Howard was not easily intimidated by an ugly dumb old maid. She walked up to her cousin's former rival. A very beautiful creature, Katherine now saw, if she only smiled more and didn't have that ugly Spanish austere attitude. "Perhaps you are jealous."

"Me? Of what?" Mary almost wanted to laugh but kept her dignity.

"Of being an old maid. I am married and I am the King's wife and I am young and I have his attention and people love me. Everyone loves me while you …"

"How dare you-"

"Will never get married and you will remain the rest of your days an old spinster. Ha-ha with no husband and children. Yes, godmother of your tenants' little brats because that is all you can aspire to and they feel sorry for you. I bet they speak behind your back and gossip after you give them their children how sad poor icky little lady Mary can never be married."

The ladies behind her laughed.

"How dare you!"

"I dare because I can and I will take two of your maids." She pointed two of Mary's ugliest. "Good day Lady Mary he-he" and she left leaving Mary utterly alone and inconsolable.

* * *

Henry didn't like the English. He didn't even like the smell of London homes. There were all kinds of awful smells and it felt like people were always looking at you, ready to rob you or kill you. This was a country of lunatics and fanatics if he could ever find one.

"Good thing, you are not in Spain." He whispered to himself. Henry told himself. "That would be murder." Three weeks, one wife and he was already bored. Catherine Medici had come and had disappointed him in every way. She was boring, she was dull and when Henry tried to get into bed with her she started going on how she would be the one in charge and would never accept Diane.

Diane, was his soul-mate, she had groomed him to be King before his father ever started to think an interest in him rather than think of him as the spare while his older brother lived. She was the only woman he knew besides his mother who truly cared.

After the death of his mother, there weren't that many people he could get close to. His father remarried, a Hapsburg bitch whose only care was pretty clothes and looking well despite the obvious fact that she was well past childbearing years and was ugly. His father recommended him to try counseling, priests, doctors, everything. Nothing worked. Until he met Diane.  
She was there one night at a large feast his father threw commemorating his birthday. He didn't feel well and he rushed to get out of there when he bumped into her. She was such a frail little thing. He remarked dumbly that he was so sorry and began stuttering when she started talking to him. It was awkward to say the least; Diane asked him if he wanted to sit by her table. She wouldn't mind. He accepted her offer.

Things ran their normal course after that. His father found out about the affair but he didn't mind. He said it would do him some good and even recommended him gifts and women after it ended but Henry swore it never would. His father started becoming worried that this infatuation would prove too dangerous for him. It was one thing to bed him –he said –Another to marry them. And that is what Henry wanted. He didn't want to marry some foreign brood mare whose only use would be to provide children and he would always hate and despoil just like his father had done to his mother. He wanted a marriage out of love, not duty. But his father was adamant. He married Catherine and one year later he found himself a widower with her stillborn infant resting with her in the same crypt.

He resumed his affair with Diane shortly after that. Catherine was cunning, devious, but never smart enough to stand against Diane. In the end hatred for Diane was her undoing. When he returned from his father's progress to Paris he found Diane was sick and she had died. She had never sent a letter or told him she was sick. Her last words to him were "Come back soon." Soon was not soon enough. Diane had given his heart to him and he had failed her. He murdered her, abandoned her for the sake of politics just as his father had done.

When his father spoke of another marriage he refused. He was not going to get married. Let Charlie get married. He was going to respect his true love's memory by sacrificing his own happiness for her.

One day when he was drinking in the filthy streets of Paris he found a vision of his angelic Diane coming down to him. She raised her arms to the sky and before him the moon was transfixed to a single point in the sky, never moving. White, pure, shinier than every diamond or gemstone, it was without blemish. Just like a pearl.

Diane said "That is who you will marry."

So here he was, accepting his father's terms to marry the King's second heiress. Lady Elizabeth Tudor. It was inconceivable of him to marry a bastard but Katherine Howard proved to everyone that she was not the air-head, dumb bimbo that everyone thought her to be. She convinced her husband to legitimize Elizabeth Tudor, her niece and stepdaughter after she announced she was pregnant.

The King did not want to disappoint her, remembering what stress had caused his first and second wife to miscarry. With a second son –and if she survived- the King would not hesitate to crown her. The ceremony would be splendid and surpass those of her predecessors.

Henry was eager to meet her. His father more so. A flatterer and a womanizer, he wanted to taste the woman who caught his English brother's eye but when he saw her he had nothing but tight-lip, fake gentle words to her. Henry, being nicer, fed the queen and king's ego and told them they made the best couple in Christendom and that England was more beautiful and its land more fertile thanks to their new queen's youth.

The English monarchs already liked this youth. His mistress had been a Catholic, something Katherine and her faction liked, but not something that caused a mayor impression on him like Henry VIII's first two wives had on Their Majesty. With the right wife and the right tricks, Elizabeth could woo him to the right direction.

Henry met his bride. "For you."

"Thank you. I am honored." Henry said taking the flowers. Elizabeth asked him about Paris, the Cathedrals and the scholars and the fashions. If she was going to be his wife, she wanted to know everything –so she would be more than a wife but an equal partner.

Henry could tell she was eager. "There is not much in Paris, I am afraid, it is not a city as exciting as London but I promise when you come to Chateau I will show you to every town so you can meet your future subjects."

Elizabeth loved the way that sounded.

Mary did not feel like attending the feast. She felt depressed and feigned sickness. Her father was too happy to let her ruin it anyway with her sadness, so he let stay locked up in her rooms.

After the feast was over, she emerged. The loud raucous had prevented her to sleep. She found several bottles, flagons, and cups thrown at the Great Hall. How sad –she thought –My mother would have never stood for this indecency. Even Anne Boleyn took better care of the King's Hall.

Mary walked around, ignoring the pitiful stares of servants. She spotted a table full of unfinished cups.

What the hell. She sat down and finished all of them.

She struggled to get up. She had to hold on to the wall not to lose her balance. All the way down to her chambers she kept hearing Kitty's voice. "You are jealous … you will die a spinster. An old maid."

Old Maid. Old Maid. Old Maid. Old Maid. It went on.

If she heard that dumb girl's voice one more time she would tear the golden locks out of her pretty little head. Pretty! She was not pretty, she was a snake. A whore, a lying bitch.

She hit the ground and hugged her knees to her chest. No matter how much she tried to get the voices out of her head they were still there. They would always be there. Anne, her mother, Katherine Howard, Jane, they were all laughing at her. She was miserable, in pain and it was all because of them.

If her mother had only accepted her father's end of the bargain, she would be the King's sister. She would have Anne of Cleves' position now and Mary would still be his favorite. The pearl of his world but instead she was cast aside like some dog her father didn't want to anymore and he hated her. She knew deep within her that he hated her. He loved Elizabeth but he hated her.

Elizabeth was her mother's daughter but she had that ridiculous over-flowing wavy red hair that didn't need much brushing. It was perfect. While Mary had her mother's stubbornness and her father's side of the family appearance. That was something he could not forgive –that he reminded him of him and his mother.

Even Elizabeth envied her, she never said it but the way she would express herself when she would remark on Mary's clothes or how she had those looks. She hated her too. It was in their nature, she guessed. After all. No Tudor could ever love another Tudor, especially one that has something the other doesn't.

If she could be asked to change one thing in her life -ONE THING- she would say to be someone else's daughter.

She hated her father. She didn't realize until now how much she hated him and how much she hated his whole Court and all of England for cheering him when he killed half of their population and desecrated all churches to fill his coffers.

She rocked herself to sleep singing her mother's lullaby, the only one her mother had ever sung to her in English. "Hush now my darling … don't you cry … we will not be parted … mum is going to be there for you till the end … mum is going to be there when you cry … mum is going to kiss all your tears goodnight …"

Slowly she closed her eyes, her vision blurred. She imagined a celestial figure looming over her, his eyes blue was the gemstones in her necklace and his skin white, the color of porcelain. _An angel_. Maybe it had come to save her, to take her to God so she could be reunited with her mother.

* * *

Chapter 1

Henry said farewell to the Queen and her ladies, and her stepdaughter. Elizabeth did not want him to leave and insisted he kissed her three times on her forehead and cheeks. He was reluctant to do so. He swore he would not kiss anyone except Diane but this child was too insistent and seeing no way out of this, he did.

The pre-teen princess squealed with joy and went to the queen's side again who took great liberties and embraced him, kissing him herself as he had done with her stepdaughter and telling him he would have many gifts in the morrow and much to do with them during his whole stay.

Already, Henry was regretting it. These English knew nothing else but to indulge in sick and twisted fantasies. In many ways, they were not different from his father in that regard. But this was going too far.

He couldn't wait to go to his chambers.

He stopped in his tracks when he spotted a lonely figure lying on the floor with her legs held against her chest, curled into a ball.

He got closer to examine her. He gasped. "Lady Mary"

The king's eldest daughter turned her eyes to the king of France's son. She was too drunk to know who he was. She giggled and began to sing, speaking of her mother and angels. Henry looked around. There were no guards and he didn't hear any footsteps.

He took the Princess and took her to her chambers then remembered he forgot about the map his father made for him. He got lost. He didn't know which way to go. He went into familiar settings and finally found his way back. If people found her here her reputation would be besmirched and so would his, and he could kiss his betrothal to the King's youngest daughter away.

As if he could care, but his father did and anyway he didn't want any more troubles but he couldn't just leave her here. He decided to shoo his servants away and before they could get a sigh of the woman in his arms he closed the door behind him.

He put her on her bed and started undressing her. He only had chemises to put on her. He rushed through his mattress, slipping her under the covers.

She stirred moving closer to him. He kept his distance, breathing hard. He could feel his heart pounding fast as she wrapped her arms around him, smelling the intoxicating smell of her fragrance. Roses, and not just any rose, rose red. Appropriate. The rose of desire.

He pushed her away but she kept coming back. "Philip." She said and suddenly he found himself jealous. Who was Philip? He searched his mind hard, there was not any Philip that he knew then he remembered about that Duke she was supposed to marry. A heretic or something of that sort that pretended to be Catholic by day but gave refuge to heretics at night.

He turned to face her. He became aware of her stunning beauty. Her rosebud lips, her eyes though half closed he could see were the color of sapphires and her skin, beautiful and delicate as her form. She radiated of beauty, true beauty and not of the cheap cosmetics the queen of England used.

He took the covers and got a full look of her body. Little breasts, a bush of red hair on her sex and her hair flowing all the way to her waist, cascading like lava.

It was no wonder then why she had been kept from him, why the queen spoke so malignantly of him. She envied her. Queen Katherine had a beauty that could easily be attained, cheap products and pretty clothes. But her stepdaughter was natural.

Without thinking and he hardly did nowadays, he brushed his lips forward, locking theirs in a passionate kiss, then proceeding to taking off her nightshift he put on her and began massaging her small breasts. Mary. As the image of the holy virgin herself, she was a sight to behold.

Mary stripped him of his clothes. Finding an easy response in her movements, he went southwards to the most intimate part of her sex and had her squealing in joy.

He came up and gripped her shoulders. "Look at me." He whispered. She opened his eyes and he couldn't make out if it was a smile or just a reflex, reminiscing of the memory she had for her long lost Duke.

He positioned himself. Her legs locked around his waist, instinctively ready for what's coming, brought him closer. He began firing on her. Each new thrust bringing her closer to heaven.

* * *

The following morrow, both woke up with aching backs and their legs sore from long hours of love-making. Mary didn't recognize him at first, and she didn't seem to realize where she was or what had happened until she tried to move and realized their bodies were still locked together.

Her eyes widened and she screamed obscenities at him. "How dare you? Do you realize what you've done?"

At his sheepish smile she smacked him and dislodged from him. Grabbing the sheets, she covered her body as she went out searching for her clothes.

"You do not have to be angry, if anyone it will be you your father will be angry at. Remember it is you who hasn't yet recognized his marriage to Katherine Howard."

"Katherine Howard is not his wife."

"She is. The sooner you accept it the better. In any case, it's not my problem but yours. When you tell your father he will be angry and blame you for spoiling your sister's charming Prince." He said as a matter of fact, and added with a grin. "That is of course if we keep it our dirty little secret."

Mary did not like the way this man said these things. She didn't like her father's wife but the man had a point. If she told him what happened he would blame her for ruining her sister's chances at marrying a Prince.

"I always live now regret the consequences later. Or is it the other way around?"

"Come on. You bedded the Dauphin of France, so what? Do you think every Princess ever goes to her wedding night without blemish? Certainly none I've met."

"You forget my mother and your mother. Lady Claude was a most pious Princess and Queen and so was my lady mother. The woman you will be marrying is my sister and she is so young and pure she would never do such a disgusting thing to her. What you did has no name."

"Yes it does. It's called sex, something very natural, everyone does it."

"Ugh." Mary twirled around in disgust then faced him back after she'd dressed. "Have you no shame?"

"I do but I rarely act on it."

Mary turned her back on him and went to see herself on the mirror, adjusting her French hood.

"Who is Philip?"

"What?"

"Philip. Your murmured his name while you were asleep. Who is he?"

"No one." Her voice was barely audible.

"Doesn't sound like no one. You said his name quite a few times when were making love. I imagine he must be someone very special. An old boyfriend perhaps? The first man you kissed. He promised you marriage-"

"Leave Philip out of this!"

"Ah so he is someone important. Where is he now?"

"Germany."

"Poor you. If I were in his position I wouldn't have left. It's very usual of those impoverished Dukes to do as they please. My father admires them for ruling independently over their duchies but anyone knows when you are ruling over a poor space of land that and still have to swear fealty to the Holy Roman Emperor you are no true ruler. Hence, why they live life to the fullest, taking advantage of whatever young maiden they can find."

"Philip was not like that!" Mary said. "We were going to get married, he promised we would live in peace in Germany-"

"Ha! Peace" He scoffed. "You would be surprised how many times I've heard that phrase and every time I've seen a woman as beautiful as yourself with her young maiden's heart broken because men like your Philip are exactly like my father, they love to promise and promise but in the end they fail to deliver."

"There is no peace lady Mary. God gives us suffering so we can see the harsh realities we live. It makes no sense but then nothing does. That is why we have a crown on our heads so we can be loved and adored but once that crown is taken from us everyone can see we are nothing but simple mortals, with fanciful clothes."

"No one is really honest with us, your Philip was no more honest when he said he loved you than my father when he declared his undying love for my mother"

"That's what you believe not I."

"It's not what I believe, it's how the world works." Henry said as he stood up and gathered his clothes. "There is no joy in the afterlife. The now is all we have and if you want to focus on your Philip be my guest but if I may be honest you were not bad in bed."

* * *

It had been three weeks since the Prince bed her. It was hard not to blush when he and her sister passed her and he grinned at her. She hated him for what he made her do but after had subsided she found herself jealous of the attention her sister was receiving when she and the Prince were seen together.

She put on her best gowns for one of her father's celebrations of his Queen's pregnancy and her sister's betrothals.

The Prince and her sister were seated on the high table next to the kings and queen. After the music started, he danced a few times with the former princess and Queen before going back to his seat. He waited until everyone was distracted then went over to her table.

"May we speak in private?" He asked.

Mary dismissed her ladies. He led her a lonely corridor. Unbeknownst to them it was the same corridor he found her drunk and passed out.

"What do you wish to talk to me about?"

He took a leather pouch that had been dangling from his bejeweled belt and took out a ring and dropped to his knees.

"This ring belonged to my grandmother Lois of Savoy. She didn't trust my father with it after he married your aunt Eleanor Hapsburg. She gave it to me on her deathbed and to give it to my bride on my wedding day."

"Why are you telling me this? Shouldn't you be telling Elizabeth this?"

"I would except I don't want to marry Elizabeth. I want to marry you." He underline the You.

Mary had seen it coming. She would get what she wanted a family, a husband, children ... but she thought of her mother and how betrayed she felt by one of her own ladies in waiting when she bore the king a son, then two more when they found themselves in his bed and the last but not least, when she usurped her position as queen of England.

Mary couldn't live knowing she'd done that to her sister. Whatever her mother had done to her mother, she wasn't going to do the same to her child. And what if she did and he broke her father found out and sent him away and broke her heart just like Philip? She would make herself look the greater fool than before.

He tilted his head, prompting her for an answer.

No. She wasn't going to do it.

"You do me a great honor but I cannot accept your offer when you are promised to another-"

He rolled his eyes and sighed in frustration. "I can break the engagement with Elizabeth. Engagements are broken all the time. When your father sees how much this mean to me-"

"No you can't. My father has made a sacred agreement with your father and even if he agrees to break it your father will take great insult. He's been pursuing this match more vigorously than your father and he won't look too kindly on him if you chose otherwise or you."

"I don't care what my father thinks. I am going to be King of France after he dies, it is my decision who I marry not his."

"But it is. As your sire he gets to pick and chose who you will spend the rest of your life with and even if it wasn't, it's your duty to France to pick who would be better for your realm."

"I am old Henry, I am twenty five, something you should take into account as well as my mother's history of miscarriages. I might bring you the same ill luck."

"I don't care. Your parents' marriage was doomed from the start by your father's indecision, I won't do the same thing he did to your mother-"

"You will." She interrupted abruptly and Henry was taken aback by her tone. She didn't know if it was what he said about her father or the last part, another empty promise but it made her angry and brought out that fiery Tudor temper it was seldom seen on her. "When you find I can't bear childre or bare only daughters you will leave me for a younger and more beautiful wife."

"You are the most beautiful woman I've seen, I would never leave you and if it ever comes the time I look on another woman as I look on you now may God damn me."

"You say that now because you are anxious to have me. You love the chase just as much as my father, but once when you have your women you grow bored with them. How long before you leave me Henry? Three, four, maybe five if I'm lucky enough to bare you a living child?"

"Mary, you are not your mother. I've had my string of romances in the past but I'm not your father. I would not abandon my rightful wife for some whore."

He got closer. "Accept my proposal and you will see for yourself what kind of man I am. No more hiding, you can live your life just like you always wanted, like you were meant to as a Princess and as my Queen."

She pondered. A Queen, a consort at that but a woman of power who would not subject to no one. It sounded too good to be true. Her mind was screaming no but another was screaming yes.

She stared into his ocean blue eyes and with a steady voice hiding her sorrow she said. "You do me much honor and nothing would make me feel more happy but I must decline. I am my father's subject as you are yours and unless my father decrees it so I can't accept yours or any other man's offer."

She closed his fist where the ring lay and wheeled around and walked away.


	2. Chapter 2

_"What kind of a row are you trying to cause in my house?" -Great Gatsby _

She hoped she'd done the right thing. It certainly felt like it. Henry and her were from different worlds. Their fathers would not let them be and in any case Henry was going to marry Bess and Bess deserved it. After witnessing her father reject her in a most awful manner, she deserved some happiness in her life.

Everything was going to work out for the best.

But that didn't make her feel better as she saw her sister and the French prince stride past her into the Greenwich gardens where they held hands and talked endless hours. Of their wedding no doubt.

She returned to her reading of Saint Anselm and other saints, hoping their suffering would make her feel better about her own pain.

Her mother said that suffering was the best that god could give you to remind you of His love for you. But how can a god that was so loving be willing to make you go through such pain? It didn't make any sense but Mary chose not to bother with these thoughts. In any case, they were too complicated for her and her mind was still focused on the one subject she was trying so hard to erase.

* * *

Henry resented not being with Mary. He imagined it was Mary he was kissing when he places a kiss on the former princess' lips. Elizabeth was similar to her sister, she bore the same complexion and the same color of hair but her manner in dress and style was very different. Elizabeth didn't hesitate to make it known she was her father's new favorite and that she was queen's favorite companion, while Mary if she was in her position, would be discreet.

Henry's companion Jacques knew what was troubling Henry and tried to calm his companion by encouraging him to enjoy the joust. Henry didn't feel like it. It was like the walk in the gardens, endless jousting and feasting and fake smiles and for what? So he could be married to a pretentious princess like her stepmother who liked him only because of the title he would inherit on his father's death?

"Cheer up. Her mother was the greatest scandal in Christendom, I am sure when she is your wife she will make a great scandal in your bed too." Jacques said winking at his friend as the lady Elizabeth turned to them and blew him a kiss.

Henry smiled warmly and blew him one back. Content she turned back. "Don't joke with that." He said when they were out of earshot after the tourney ended.

"I am not joking. Anne Boleyn made the king of England very happy. Her daughter will likely do the same and have you seen those eyes? Dark hooks for the soul. You should feel lucky my friend."

"I will only feel lucky when we are both at the bottom of the sea." Henry said.

That night he dreamt of Diane again. She was telling him to wed, be happy, be merry or else he would live the rest of his life miserable and with him would die the kingdom of France as well. He woke up, drenched in cold sweat and looked down at the floor. There was the leather pouch that contained the ring he'd given to Mary.

It was clear what he had to do.

He crept out of his chambers and called on Jacques. When Jacques heard of his idea he screamed at his friend. "Are you crazy?! Do you have any idea what your father will do if he finds out? What he will do to you?"

Henry nodded but he didn't care.

His friend rolled his eyes. "Please tell me this isn't because she refused you. If you want her that much Henry, invite her to France as part of her sister's party, you can bed her then, make her your mistress then send her back to England, voila! Problem solved."

"It's not that easy."

"Why not!"

"Because I already did."

"What!"

"Shh!"

"What do you mean you bedded her? When did this happen and why didn't you tell me?" Jacques demanded. He did not know what made him angrier, that his friend did this reckless thing or that he didn't tell him.

As they passed the corridors holding a dim candle, Henry said "Because I knew you'd tell the whole kingdom and at the moment secrecy is of the utmost importance."

"Utmost importance. You just threw your marriage with Elizabeth away and you are talking about utmost importance. What has gotten into you? This isn't like you."

"Let's just say I am beginning to take matters seriously. Here we are." He knocked on Mary's doors. He was answered by one of her attendants, he put his finger on his lips asking her to be silent and paid her a handsome bribe to let him and his companion in.

Lotte stepped aside and let the two strangers in to her mistress' apartments then with the money went back to her own.

"Mary. Mary. Wake up." Mary woke up to familiar eyes. She bolted from her bed. "What are you doing here?" She asked.

He said nothing and grabbed her hand and pushed her where she kept her wardrobe and took out the best gown she had and a French Hood from her vanity and told her to put them on quickly.

"Not until you tell me what this is about and what did you do with Lotte?"

"She is fine, I gave her a little incentive."

"Please Mary we need to get out here quick, I don't how much longer before they find out about our scheme. Please put it on."

Seeing Henry's face she was about to ask more but then seeing the way Henry nearly went to his knees to beg her for this favor, made Mary agree.

After she dressed quickly, putting on extra jewels and ornaments on her ears and hair, leaving only her neck exposed, she grabbed on her cloak and traveled at the dead of night with her two companions.

They reached a small priory near Richmond, none other than the Observant Friars where she'd been baptized and so many of her other dead brothers and sisters.

"Is this the bride?" The parishioner asked as they stepped in. Henry and Jacques nodded.

The father proceeded with the ceremony. Henry turned to Mary, piercing her sapphire eyes as the ceremony commenced. They both understood the seriousness of the situation. When the father asked the words do you accept, it would be her chance to say once and for all if she loved or rejected him.

In a sane world Mary would have said yes and continue on living her hollow existence but in the insane world she lived in, this was her only chance she'd get to have a family, a husband, worthy of her and a position where she would not be mocked or ridiculed but worshipped as she always believed she was meant to be.

"Yes." Mary said when the time came.

Henry smiled and mouthed a small 'thank you' then when the priest asked for the rings he took out his grandmother's one and put it on her finger. The priest leaned expectantly at the couple who was lost in the moment as Henry put on his illustrious grandmother's ring on Mary's finger.

This was the fulfillment of her dream. A ring worthy of her and a husband who would promise her much more than any other prince in her mother's family or her father ever had. She looked up at Henry, meeting his smile with a broader one.

The priest's voice brought them from their thoughts. "The other ring?"

"Oh." Henry let go and searched his pockets. He was sure he had one. "How stupid of me. I don't have a ring. Jacques-"

But his friend's pockets were also empty.

"I-I …"

Mary's face fell. It was too good to be true. Suddenly a wind blew through the chapel and with it came the usual from their autumn weather, leaves, dirt, but much to everyone's surprise a golden ring in the shape of a crown.

Mary picked it up and examined it. It was beautiful with no designs around it but made out of pure gold.  
Mary took this as a sign, her eyes were raised on the figure of Jesus Christ hanging above the pew.

"Will this do?" She asked the priest.

"If the groom has no objection-"

"We don't. Proceed." Henry said quickly and the priest chuckled at the youth's insistence. Youths these days, he couldn't blame him. In these days it was better to live day by day, with all these religious unrest and wars between Christian nations, who knew if you were going to wake up to the next sunlight?

"What god has joined let no man put asunder. Let us rest freely for this mass is over. You may now kiss the bride."

Henry could not wait, he leaned forward and without hesitation took his wife's mouth in his. Mary almost pulled back but then she remembered she was a wife, there was no danger in feeling what she felt when his lips touched hers now.

"Thank you father." Henry said after Mary and Jacques stepped back into the courage.

"My pleasure but umm when your parents find out (and they will) I shall expect something more than divine protection. Prayer can only take me so far my son."

"And you shall. Take this as a promise from one faithful servant of the church to another, no harm shall come to thee." Henry said thrusting a large pouch of golden sovereigns to the priest.

The priest smiled and said "Go with god. Enjoy your night, god has smiled upon your union."

"I shall father." Henry said. He boarded the carriage where Mary and Jacques were waiting for him.

"What now?" Jacques said.

Henry looked to Mary. She'd been awfully quiet, he suspected she still thought whether this was the right decision or not, but in a move that surprised them both she gave a calculated smile that turned warm when she fixated her eyes on Henry and said "Now we spend celebrating. You dismissed my lady in waiting for the night so you owe me a night of marital pleasure."

Jacques widened his eyes and looked at his friend. "Well Henry I can see I was wrong. Your new bride does prove she is full of surprises."

She is. Henry thought. And just what more, he couldn't wait to find out.

* * *

Henry VIII hated waiting for his future son in law to make an appearance at court. He had been delayed from the tournament where he was supposed to make an appearance dressed in his best finery than offer to joust for his daughter's hand and ask for her favors in true chivalric fashion and Henry VIII loved nothing more than chivalric fashions but he was late.

Just what was keeping him?

* * *

Inside their bedroom, Henry and Mary remained lost in a haze of pleasure. Mary could not think of how many times she prayed Ave Marias and Pater Nostra when she met Philip and had lustful thoughts of him. With Henry it was more than lust; there was something strange, almost spiritual and animalistic altogether she felt in her being when she was with him. She kissed him fully on the lips then rested her head on his chest.

She didn't want him to leave. She didn't want him to go back to Elizabeth, to her father and pretend that he was happy son in law and groom to her father and sister. It almost felt bad what she was doing but when she thought of all she went through it felt like a just reward she was receiving for all her suffering.

Her mother's best friend and her governess, lady Salisbury, told her of the struggles her mother went through to marry her father. She waited for nearly eight years until god had finally answered her prayers and transformed her in not only his wife but his queen on the same day he was crowned. Now Mary followed her mother's path. With her marriage she and Henry would be king and queen when Henry's father passed away and they would rule jointly as her mother and father always meant to.

With her chances of ruling England gone, this was the next best thing and she found herself loving Henry. He was not the man she pictured herself with, but he was energetic, vivacious, funny, handsome, smart, and he did not hesitate to speak his mind something she realized that her previous groom-to-be, Philip, hardly did. He was always very nervous and preferred chuckling and looking down instead of being his true self.

Henry was not afraid of taking what he wanted and making his will known. All markings of a great king. Or a bad one, the back of her mind told him bringing the lessons she'd learned when she'd been studying about kingship in her childhood years about the kings of the wars of the roses. She shut that voice with the simple sentence: Henry will never be like that.

"What are you thinking?" Henry could see she was in deep thinking.

"Nothing. I just feel blessed. Yesterday was a good omen. That wind, the ring, it is a sign."

"Don't tell me you believe in signs."

"Yes, don't you?"

"No. Nothing but superstitions and folk tales, not different from witchcraft."

"What about the saints? Many were accused of being warlocks and witches once, but they all spoke the Lord's truth."

"So you think last night was the Lord's message telling us we were blessed?"

"Yes. He is everywhere. I used to doubt him after my mother died and I was forced to sign the Oath but after my brother was born I found Him again."

"How? Your brother is an impediment to your crown."

Mary blinked. She didn't like how he said that so she explained. "If Edward wasn't born my father would have disposed of a good woman and he would be on another woman-hunt for another wife and another and another and before long the kingdom would be worse off."

"So you thought of your father's women and kingdom before you. That's admirable. I would've thought of me first."

"That is where you are wrong then. God tells us all to be faithful to Him but we cannot fully be faithful until we show good will to our neighbors."

"What if those neighbors don't deserve it?"

"Who are we to judge so?" Mary said. "Everyone deserves a second chance." She looked up and gave him a closed smile.

She was deeply religious as he had expected her to be, and in spite of everything she had been through she still thought the best of people, though hard as she tried to hold back her resentments, her good will was still there. "You are better than me then. But … you still have a dark side." He said. "Katherine Howard."

Mary's mouth twisted and her expression changed. She could not deny she hated her but she said "I feel pity for her, she is a little girl trapped in a woman, well almost woman-" both laughed "-playing queen. When my father sees her for what she is he will divorce her or worse, have her beheaded just as he did her cousin."

"Oh. Now there is a thought." Henry said more lustful hearing her talk so venomously.

Mary felt his pulsating groin against her stomach.

"You are a dangerous woman my lady but I can't say I don't like this side of yours."

Mary was not content with showing her worst side, it was something she tried very hard to suppress as she believed everyone was god's children but Katherine Howard incurred in her such wrath it was impossible not to feel this way.

He gripped her shoulders and got on top of her. "Henry, I don't think now is the time. My father is waiting for you and he can't find us in this … compromising position" she said unable to say outright what they were doing and were about to do once again if Henry managed to convince her.

And he did with one single stroke. Mary tried to resist, grabbing on the sheets, pressing her lips tightly together but the struggle ended and Henry won.

"He can say what he likes, what better way to tell him we are man and wife." He said thrusting into her once more.

* * *

Henry at last arrived at the dinner table held up at the dais. The French king, his father, was there along with his friend Jacques who wore a wicked grin, asking him how his wedding night was? Henry didn't answer and went to where his father and king Henry VIII were seated. "Your Majesties."

"Your Highness. What a pleasure to see you and so late, take a seat, your father and I we're discussing the marriage settlement." He turned to Francis. "As part of the marriage treaty twenty thousand ducats and England's eternal alliance with France over our common enemies."

"Qui." Francis agreed. Twenty thousand ducats was a miserable sum. Merchants' daughters received more but Henry VIII was promising him much more than this. He was bringing to the table the promise of never attacking France and becoming an ally against the Emperor and split Milan when Francis attained the duchy into two. It was better than anything Francis had hoped for.

Henry almost hesitated as he heard this. It was a great promise but seeing the crown ring on his finger he was reminded of his promise to his lady.

He met her eyes as he looked down at her table. Today she had her hair down and dressed differently than she used to. Instead of austere fashions she wore light colors, light green and silver with pearls and diamond teardrops that decorated the low square neckline of her gown. Her neck was bare except for a thin, very thin, golden choker with a very small diamond hanging from it. On her hair was a pearl diadem with diamonds and a red ruby at the center, the diamonds formed shapes of roses.

She looked absolutely stunning. He almost wavered until he saw her. He cleared his throat and shifted his attention back to his father. "May we speak in private?"

"It's urgent." He added.

Francis looked questioningly at Henry but Henry's expression remained deadly serious. He excused himself with the King.

"What is this about?"

Henry hesitated."Is there anywhere here we can talk in private?" He asked his father in law before they were out of ear shot.

Henry VIII nodded and told his servant to lead them to the throne room that lay behind the King's Hall. "Thank you." The servant closed the door behind them and Henry looked straight into his father's eyes.

"Mind telling me what this is about now?"

"I think you need to sit down.

Francis did as he was told, amusing his on by obeying his one little order and signaled him to go on. If he knew his son and he knew him well, he was going to tell him he needed to confess because he had had another dalliance with another woman who was one, probably pregnant, or two, hopelessly in love and her husband had sworn vengeance. Either of which he would tell Henry to pay the wench and leave it at that but his Henry was a hopeless romantic and so dependent on the good Lord's approval that he had to confess his sins almost as much as a monk's.

Why couldn't Charles be his eldest? Now that was a son he could be proud to name his heir. Francois his eldest had been weak after years of captivity but he was strong in spirit but the Lord saw fit to take him then Henry … he returned to him speaking Castilian and so afraid of his own shadow he had to put that whore Diane for him. Much good it did as it got him out of his shell and into another into that woman's paw. He was so happy when the woman was dead but then his wife died and with no heir for France. It was of the utmost importance Henry married. Elizabeth Tudor was very young but like her mother she had that beautiful and natural charisma that made her mother such a witty and great woman to be around with. She also had a strong spirit, not easily dominated or set to dominate others the way the Spanish mare had done on his English brother or Diane had on his son. She could handle him, mold him to be a true King and cure that hopeless romantic in him.

"Well?" Francis, prompted, crossing his arms to hide his impatience.

Henry shut his eyes. Okay, here it goes.

Henry VIII delighted with his wife on her new sweet meats. Meat pies and all the delicacies, they were already on the third course. Elizabeth was too full to eat more but out of respect for her father and mother she made room in her stomach for more.

Just then all heads turned to the door leading to the Throne Room.

"How dare you? You have any idea what you've done? You just needed one little agreement and we would've been free of the English and their pretentions on our throne, your throne if you are still within reason's reach to go there and accept the king of England's proposal!"

"I have pondered on it and I have decided not to." Henry told his father. "I am going to marry whoever I want, I did and she is of my choosing." Henry said speaking just as strongly to his father, refusing to cower before his old man for once.

Francis would have applauded such tenacity if it didn't have to do with something so great as this.

He rubbed his temples then passed both hands through his dark mane. "Oh heaven's sake just hear yourself. Choice? Do you think I had any choice when that bitch of Austria was hoisted upon me by the fucking Emperor? Do you think you had any choice when the soldiers forced me to decide between me and you? You do NOT have any choice. You are a Prince of France, my crown heir now get there and tell them you accept their damn treaty!" He nearly kicked his son out of the room.

Henry hurried out of the room to the King's Hall in a fury. Everyone was looking at him expectantly, the king of England's face a mask of impending rage, already expecting the worse and getting ready to lash once more at the dreaded French. He had been made a fool once by their king, he would not be made a fool once more by his miserable and ungrateful whelp. If he didn't accept his daughter, Henry VIII would make his life miserable.

Everyone's head leaned on forward. Some who were nearer to the high table on the dais, moved their chairs closer.

"I-I …" Henry hesitated.

Mary looked down, disappointed and her heart breaking. She should've known. No prince would ever accept her. All this for nothing.

"I cannot accept your offer to marry your daughter because I'm already married to your eldest daughter the lady Mary Tudor."

There was silence in the crowd, followed by gasps, murmurs and the clash of cups and crystal goblets as they fell to the floor. Open mouths and eyes stared at him.

Had he lost his mind? The former princess? Katherine of Aragon's daughter? The lady Mary? All eyes then turned to the said lady. For the first time she was taken notice of. Her appearance which had hardly been noticed because of the celebrations, suddenly was and they saw how different she looked from the other times when she was sadder and wore austere, darker clothes. She wore bright colors, green, the color of her house, together with pearls and diamonds in her hair and dress, she shined brighter than any other lady at court and the new glow in her they did not doubt that came from being the crown prince's new wife and bedding him (some dared to assume) was very visible. She was no longer the old maid the queen and her ladies had made fun of but a lady livelier than everyone and far lovelier with beauty greater than the queen's.

And this rankled the queen. Suddenly she had a new rival. And it made her angrier and made her look like a fool that her prediction was spit right back at her face when the half-breed Spanish mare looked back at her, giving her a humble smile, her cheeks red and her face more youthful, a product Katherine knew very well as she knew all the tricks, of being deflowered.

She stuck her lower lip. Like a pouting, spoiled child, she could not accept that her favorite stepchild had been put second once more by this arrogant, spoiled Spanish brat.

She would get hers. Oh yes she would. Even if it took her a lifetime. Kitty swore by all the saints and everything she knew, she would make sure that Mary Tudor rue the day she crossed her stepdaughter.

Henry VIII, not having the patience to wait years, decided to act immediately and ordered his guards to take her.

Henry was at once by her side and kicking one in the gut and punching another, he stole one their sword and pointed it at the coming guards. "The next man who tries to take her shall have to go through me."

"Guards take her!"

But neither dared to move. The room had become deathly silent and with no one ready to move a muscle the King unsheathed his dagger and was ready to move, but Francis stopped him. "Get off me!"

But he wasn't the only one stopping him, the Dukes of Norfolk, Suffolk, and the Earl of Hertford and his brother had come to aid him. If the king harmed one hair of the crown prince of France's head they would be done for.

"Lay down your weapons down brother."

"Don't call me brother. Is this how you pay my generosity? Your son has defiled my daughter and made a fool of my youngest! You have shamed me, you have shamed my house and you have shamed England!"

"I know you have cause to be angry but be angry at my son not France. I swear by god's law and man I had no knowledge of this. We can work this out, annul the wedding and everything will be as it never happened."

"No. I refuse it. You've shamed me once now you've shamed me again." He said recalling the time when he won that wrestling match and made him look like a fool before his brother's wife Katherine and his queen then, Claude.

"He speaks the truth father. The king knew nothing of this. If you want to blame somebody blame us."

Henry's eyes blazed furiously as he looked to his eldest daughter. He should've known. No one better than that Spanish mare Katherine's daughter to commit such act.

He looked at her with disgust. "To think I called you my daughter, my pearl. I loved you, more than anything, everything in this life and you ran and opened your legs to the first man you've encountered. Just as your mother."

Suddenly Mary got angry. "How Dare You!" She shouted. "My mother was a good woman whose only crime was not giving you the son you so cravenly desired. How many more women were you going to put to death before you got your wish? The only reason you didn't cut your late wife's head was because she succeeded and she still paid with her life for it. I pray you have a son Your Majesty and you can be very happy so you don't have to look on your past sins when you face judgment."

"I don't have to face judgment, I already did when I married your mother. Just as you lied today when you showed your face in this gathering, she lied to me when she said she was a virgin."

"She was a virgin!"

"So she was! That was not the fucking point!"

"No it was having a son and divorcing her so you could legitimize yours by your whores. Isn't that what you called Anne, father? A whore, a concubine after years of saying she was the most pure lady in Christendom, and then lady Jane Seymour the most chaste lady in Christendom, then lady Anne of Cleves before she came here –the most beautiful until you saw her and called her Flanders' Mare and now lady Katherine Howard, your chaste rose without a thorn." She chuckled. "No, Your Majesty, the true whore here is your conscience that time and time again has duped you and raped you with illusions of grandeur."

"You … you …"

"Yes, me! The whore, the half breed, call me what you like, it does not erase the fact that we've married and before the eyes of the law, the true church's law and God's it's more than I can say for every woman you've been married to."

The room went deadly silent, expecting their king to lash at any minute at his eldest daughter. Edward Seymour would later write that he had to detain him harder along with the other lords, for fear he would kill his daughter.

Henry did no such thing. He grew calm and they let him go but kept close to him. "You want to marry him. Very well. And you-" he said in a deadly voice, looking like the devil he intended to appear to inspire fear. "my brother –" he said to the king of France –"you wanted a daughter in law, you got one. Our contract is signed, you and your daughter in law will leave this place by the morrow and you I hope you're happy Mary because you will find as your dearest mother that being a wife and being a consort are two different things." Then he dashed out of the Hall and called the celebrations off. Everyone followed, leaving only the king, his son, his new daughter in law and the Dukes of Norfolk, Suffolk and the Earl of Hertfod and his brother whose sole purpose there was to finalize the marriage agreement.

Francis I was ready to pound his fists at his son and throw the Tudor wench who ruined things for him out the window but he saw no way out of it. The contract he signed was not the same, guessing their king's thoughts, the English nobles changed it and Chancellor Audley took out many things like the king's dowry which was the alliance and promise to defend France against the Empire. The twenty thousand ducats remained. –A promise, Audley said, from his master to show how generous he could be.

Signed the following morrow, Francis, his son, and his new daughter in law along with their entourage left the country.


	3. Chapter 3

_"If you want justice you've certainly come to the wrong place." -Tyrion Lannister_

"My god this is such a strange land which has destroyed and ruined so many great men and which never ceased to be riven." Richard II

He could barely look at Henry now who stood next with his new wife. Tournaments, feasts had been organized as part of the celebrations to greet the new Dauphine. The French people were still expecting a celebration so Francis gave them one but it was not the same.

From the get-go the faction headed by his sister and his mistress hated her, but the nobles that had once sided with Diane, now sided with Mary as her politics were similar to theirs. So France was split once more into two factions. The only good thing out of this was that the Tudor wench became pregnant less than a month after her arrival.

Mary guessed her pregnancy was the result of their first coupling. "How is my queen today?"

"I am not queen yet." Mary said hiding her smile before a mask of humility as he came from behind, kissing her neck, not caring if her ladies found this indiscreet. Mary waved them off.

"Your ladies are appalled to see me enter. Perhaps they are jealous that they can't match your beauty."

"I think they are more jealous that I got my handsome prince while they are stuck in loveless marriages."

"Poor them, I almost feel sorry. Almost." He said pulling a chair next to her. "You are very radiant today. Two more months and our child will be born. Aren't you afraid?" Henry asked. He knew Mary was strong, but thoughts still loomed over the loss of Catherine. He never had any love for her, but he cared for her and dying at childbirth was a harsh reality that all women lowborn and highborn faced.

"A little." Mary confessed. "But I have an army of midwives with me and the comfort of books. Your aunt was very sweet giving me all these."

"Ha, ha, ha. Sweet. You truly are as your mother's motto humble and loyal but my aunt is anything but sweet. She is probably praying as we speak you die and I marry your sister."

"That won't happen. I will prove her and your father's mistress the Duchess of de Pisseleu wrong. Within me rides a prince, I can feel it. Look, see."

Henry felt two kicks at each side of her stomach. Inexperienced in childbirth except what she had witnessed with Jane Seymour and even that was not enough to teach her the woes of childbirth, she didn't realize the movements meant she could be carrying twins.

"A son." Henry agreed, easing her worries.

"I can just feel it. Any day now. A son will be born and your father and your aunt will have no more reason to avoid me."

"They don't avoid you, just your presence."

Mary chuckled, "Henry! This is not joking matter. I said I would deliver you a son and I intend to." She said turning very serious.

"I know you will." Henry said. He kissed her.

Mary smiled, letting her emotions take control of her. Perhaps it was the pregnancy too, but she felt happy. For the first time in her life she felt very happy.

It was like a dream come true. Two babies were born on September 13, 1542, ironically the same month as her sister, the woman he had been meant to marry. The babies were boys and both healthy. None showed any sign of weakness and their cheeks were round, their eyes tiny but open and alert to any sound that disturbed them and their cheeks and arms and legs plump, a sign of their health.

Mary looked at them with deep love in her eyes. The midwives as Henry's aunt warned that they could still die, but she didn't care. For once she didn't care for their barbs. They were her sons and in her mind were perfect and eternal and they would always stay this way, pure and innocent.

When Henry VIII heard of the news he flew in a rage. The second phase of the Italian Wars had begun and he did not hesitate to send troops, allied with the holy Roman emperor against the king of France who once again allied himself with the Infidels, the Turks.

Things did not sail smoothly as the king planned. Mary was left regent at Henry's insistence and she proved as her mother a formidable opponent. Though he suspected this was because she had help. After all, Marguerite of Navarre was there to help her and the woman had more experience in ruling that Mary and knowing his daughter she probably took credit for her aunt in law.

Mary did not care what her father thought.

She sent a reply telling him: _"My dearest father I am thankful you think so poorly of me as it makes me feel less guilty for my sinful thoughts when I think of you with the same ill feelings. I guess now we are even. Yet, I must add that while I did not expect such kind feelings for my son, I will have to disappoint you once more for they are thriving and they are just a year old and I am pregnant with another and with god's great mercy for His mercy is great His light shines brighter and is there to guide us when our true fathers are not there to, will bring us another prince_

_… your dearest and filial daughter, Marie de Valois"_

"Damn her!" Henry threw the letter then picked it up and tore it to shreds. She was getting on his every nerve and he knew it was her all along who was ruining his whole expedition by telling every fucking French soldier as she insisted on going with her husband –while pregnant (some crazy dream of imitating her god damned grandmother Isabella)- to inspect the troops, every secret regarding English military tactics and formation.

Every day she was becoming a greater threat and with another son on the way she could pose a major threat to his heirs and Elizabeth.

Katherine had borne frail son months before Mary's twin boys. They were the envy of her. While her son was sickly, he too had thrived but it was not the same. The woman she mocked was pregnant once again while her stomach remained flat and her husband refused to lay with her, instead showering her with gifts and making up excuses.

She knew the real reason he was angry. That Spanish pig Mary or Marie as the Spanish brood chose to call herself now. She ruined everything for her!

As long as she lived Kitty could never be safe. Her cousin knew it and she tried to get rid of her unsuccessfully, now Kitty too would have to find a way to get rid of her.

But how? Not poison or dagger. Everyone would suspect her or worse the king, and then they would all be in greater trouble.

How then?

Then it dawned to her. Where her cousin Anne failed so many times …

She went to visit her uncle to tell him of her bright idea.

"Ha!" The Duke of Norfolk chuckled. "You can't be serious. You want to give that Spanish bitch over to the Duke of Bavaria? Are you mad?"

"I am not uncle."

"Even if the little princess is still married and she has another son who is to say she will have more and even if she does under her father's law her marriage is not recognized. He said so himself."

"You forget my dear he signed a contract."

"Contracts can be annulled, you said so yourself." She neared him and sharing that conniving look for which the Duke of Norfolk was famous for, she added, "When the king is in a row we Howards must stick together to show him the right way. The empire can't last without its territories and some while being heretic still owe allegiance to the emperor."

"But he will never allow his cousin to be married to one."

"He won't but for the sake of turning the tide in their favor he might. And my husband can be the one proposing him the good benefits of it."

His mind began to work fast. What Katherine was proposing was madness but she did have a point. It was the Howard's family duty to show the king the right way. The Howards no matter what had always shown themselves true to royal authority and always came out clean of all scandal. After Anne he was committed his family would not sink again. His father had not survived and sworn to the new Tudor king, Henry VII, allegiance after Bosworth, just so his family could crumble into dust.

* * *

Mary was in deep mourning. Mourning for herself and the child that refused to come out.  
"I am doing the best I can."

"You must push harder." Marguerite of Navarre said strictly.

Mary cried. Make it stop. God make it stop.

Memories of Henry's piercing and lustful gazes came to her. If she were to die now who would be left to care for her babies? Henry would remarry, she knew his father would not hesitate and to win England's support once more he would be capable of everything.

Live Mary. Live for your babies. Mary screamed. Please … she begged against the voices that begged her to push. She couldn't handle this anymore. It was costing her too much. The baby was not supposed to come for another month. What if it was born wrong?

"I can't. Please don't make me push, please let me rest. I need to …" She was dozing off but Marguerite slapped her across the face.

"Stay focused!" She yelled.

"It's too much. I just want my babies. Please bring me my babies."

"You will see your children once you deliver this baby." She softened her tone. "Lady Mary, you must push or else you and the child will die."

"Why are you so keen on my well being? You hate me."

"Yes, I do." Marguerite said. "But my nephew loves you and your children, bless them would be lost without you and you have proven your loyalty to France."

Mary nodded and began to push with all her might. The baby was born two hours later. It was a boy and they named him Thomas as opposed to the more traditional royal French names they'd used for their firstborn, Francois and Jean Henri.

He looked down at his babe. It would be two weeks more until his wife was churched. Meanwhile she would remain with her women and to their chagrin with Marguerite and his wife's mistress. He hated his father for imposing those two shrews on her, especially Anne but it was the least they could allow after he'd permitted Mary her share of power while they were away.

Like a true regent, Mary had been there with him, insisting on learning firsthand of governing. He was not thrilled by it but Mary insisted that if she was going to be his queen someday she needed to learn about ruling.

She was a fast learner, on the second day she was conversing with the troops and learning all she could about tactics from their generals and even being at the head of the first vanguard when they launched an attack to defend the town of Nice against her cousin's forces. Her speech "Here be gentleman a poor weak and defenseless stranger but who carries within her a powerful prince, a prince of France and married to the most powerful kingdom, I beseech you arm yourselves of valor and defeat the enemies that want to shame you" armed the men of valor.

It was a great victory and his father could not say afterwards that she was not loyal.

His youngest son stared at him with big eyes. Unlike his older brothers his eyes were wide but as alert and he was always lazy, preferring sleep and being coddled than inspecting his surroundings.

Henry picked him up. He had the complexion of his parents but his hair and sapphire eyes were completely his mother's. The others had been all Henry, this one was all Mary and he couldn't be happier because it was a strong reminder of their love.

Mary celebrated the night after her churching spending the night in Henry's arms. They talked about everything from the baby to their two year olds and the many more they wanted to have.

"I want our next one to be a girl. We've had boys now I want girls."

"Are you sure? Don't you want another boy to make your dynasty more plentiful."

"No. We have three boys, three boys is more than enough. Girls on the other hand will be a blessing."

"Especially if they look like their mother." He added kissing her forehead, getting lost in the scent of her sweet fragrance of her hair.

"I wouldn't want them looking like me."

"Why not?"

"They would give you trouble for once and I can just picture your aunt Marguerite and your father's mistress finding just about everything wrong with them for it."

"Let us worry about the harpies later. When I'm king, it will just be you and me and no one, absolutely no one will ever criticize you on pain of death."

It sounded so sweet and she smiled looking down at her flat stomach. Another boy, possibly a girl if Henry's wish came true would lay there. She looked up at him. "Tell me about your mother. You never talk about her much. I want to know about her. What sort of woman was she? I remember her vaguely but probably it's not a good image."

"Yes, I remember because Francois told me afterwards how you nearly broke his nose."

"He remembered?!"

"Yes, mother said it was the first time someone ever stood up to him. I don't think Francois appreciated the comment. He didn't talk to her for a month until the engagement was broken and then …"

"Then what? Henry?"

"Nothing. It's not important."

"Henry. Please tell me. It's my cousin right?" Henry nodded.

"Francois never talked much after that except once and this time it was different. He said you were beautiful and if he could go back he would beg our father to marry you."

"What made him change this mind?"

"War." Henry said. "After your cousin captured our father and he exchanged his freedom for us, he told me none of this would've happen if father had pushed further for the match between you and him."

"So he didn't hate me then. But what about you? You must've hated me too just by being related to my cousin."

"No. In truth I hated only those directly associated with him. You are his fist cousin but you didn't bare the last name Hapsburg, you didn't commit the atrocities he did and neither did your mother. My hatred is for them alone."

He looked at her expression. "Do you disapprove?"

"No, I am no one to tell you when I have resentments of my own but for your immortal soul you must forgive them. This life is temporary, heaven lasts forever, it's better to leave this world without hatred or deceit."

"And what about your hatreds?" He inquired giving her that cheeky smile that always won her over.

"Let me worry about hatreds later, your soul is my first priority."

"Well I am glad to know I am so loved by the she-vicar of-"

She shut him up with a long kiss. "That is for blaspheming."

"Then let me blaspheme more."

* * *

Henry VIII looked at the Duke of Norfolk. "And you are sure the Duke will agree to this?"

"Yes, my lord. The German lords have been in alliance with themselves and often times switch alliances between France and the holy empire-"

"And what makes you think they won't do so again?"

"Because the empire is willing to promise much as it can to take as much allies away from France." Edward Seymour said before the Duke of Norfolk could.

Thomas Howard glared at the younger man.

He could see where the Duke was going and he was not going to let him get to it first.

But it was too late. The king's mind was already spinning and after reading for a third time the clause of the new marriage contract, he looked at Thomas. "See to it Your Grace that he gets here safely and also the other German nobles. I want them to let them know that my court was always welcome to them."

"Ned." He turned to his brother-in-law. "Prepare my lady Anne of Cleves, she will be our personal ambassador and be the first to receive them when they get here."

"Yes my lord." Ned said nodding regally, hiding his triumphant grin.

Anne was excited to welcome her cousin back and she would get to see so many familiar faces. She just worried about Mary, being amongst the few women who were privy to the king's plans. She was happy the king trusted her with these matters but she was sad because of what this would mean to Mary. She was the first friend she made here when everyone was cold and unwelcome. After she became the king's sister she grew out of her shell and people started talking to her and treating her as if she was one of them. But through all the glamour the king and his new queen showed, she still remembered her friendship with Mary.

But she will be happy with my cousin. Philip would treat her right. He had declared his undying love for Mary when she was Henry's queen and he would do so again. He'd written to Anne that he never forgot about her and asked Henry since their annulment to come back and finally Henry had agreed.

When Mary saw him, she would forget all about the French prince (she suspected he didn't love her anyways. A man who had been with many women could never be faithful to her stepdaughter. Philip had been with others but those had been before knowing Mary and after meeting her he had remained chaste, refusing other marriage offers, still maintaining hope he would be reunited with her).

Mary stirred. Last night Henry had left her. For battle, he said. She could not wait to have him with her again. She had great news to tell him. It wasn't confirmed yet but the signs were all there. A baby was in her belly.

Henry's seed was strong.

"Henry. You're back." She said hearing his heavy footsteps.

"Not quite."

She bolted out of bed and gathered the covers around her.

"You do not have to cover yourself. You are clothed and decent for once in your life and you are back home where you belong."

"What?" Mary looked out the window and recognized the familiar setting of London. "How?"

"Your husband is the not the only one with the means Mary. You should be more careful who you pick and choose as your ladies in waiting. I thought your mother taught you that."

"What? Not going to greet your beloved father? No barb words this time."

"Why are you doing this? You said you didn't want me-"

"I said I didn't want you and your husband here, separate is another manner."

He advanced to her and she stepped back. There was nowhere to run and she was suddenly scared. No one in London would speak against her father if he did something, his new position gave him that power.

He put one hand on her cheek. "I loved you above all my children, more than Edward and Elizabeth and I was ready to give you all still after your new brother's birth. Now you will get nothing." His voice grew cold. "In light of your behavior the council has been very merciful and decided to reward you with a present."

"What kind of present?" Mary asked, instantly suspicious not liking her father's grin.

"You remember Philip? That handsome Duke you Katherine for driving him away? Congratulations Mary you got your wish, he is coming back and he will be your new husband."

"I already have a husband and I am waiting for his next child."

"You are not married. You did not have my permission and under my law your marriage is null and void and if you are carrying another child of his in your belly, it will be labeled a bastard just like you."

"You can't do this. I am the Dauphine of France, the wife of the future king, I demand-"

"You demand nothing! You are my daughter god damn it and you are my subject first and foremost and if I say you marry the Duke of Bavaria you will marry the fucking Duke of Bavaria. Do you understand?!"

"DO YOU UNDERSTAND?" Henry closed his hand around Mary's face, squeezing her hard.

"Yes." She said silently.

"Good. He will be here in less than a week which by that time we will know if you are carrying the prince's bastard or not."

"But I will not do it." Henry turned. "He is my husband and I will recognize no other husband but him and the child I am carrying is a true prince of France and England."

Henry advanced to her once again and slapped her. The force of the slap threw her to the floor but she did not show fear or pain.

"Let me leave you one thing clear Mary. I don't care if you are with child, here you will obey and if you refuse to heed my orders I will take that baby out of you myself and put it in some local hospital where you will never see it again. Is that clear?"

"Very … Your Majesty."

"Lord father. In private you will address me as such." He snapped his fingers and her new maids came by. "Get her dressed and send someone to fetch Doctor Butts." Her father left.

Doctor Butts confirmed the former princess was pregnant. "A month by the looks of it."

"Will she have more children?"

"Given her mother's history I would say no."

"But?"

"But she has a stronger fertility and she's delivered twins and a boy, two in a row and this pregnancy is further proof of her fertility."

"So your diagnosis is she can?"

"Yes, given everything is done accordingly to prevent any risk of infection, she will continue on to have more children."

"Good." Henry said. That was what he needed to counter those brats in France bastard brats' claims, should they make it.

* * *

Philip arrived in the early summer of 1543. The flowers were blooming, England was as green and windy as he remembered it but the island never left him. He still carried the rings the late Cromwell had shipped back to him after Mary was forced to give everything he'd given her when the betrothal was broken. He swore he would keep insisting and despite his relatives' claims he should stop, he never did. He knew it in his heart that Henry VIII would see the error of his ways and bring him back.

Now this was his golden opportunity.

Mary saw the face of her old flame when he crossed the doors of her bedchamber. Her stomach was not yet showing but the signs were there for anyone wise to recognize them. "Lady Mary-" He started by her looks froze as she met his eyes. He had expected this. "Mary …" he chose with more familiarity. "It's a pleasure to see you again."

She looked at her ladies. "Leave."

"But my lady-"

"I said leave!"

They fled like scared chickens out of the room, some of them whimpering.

"You always had a way with your women." She did not laugh. He got serious and took a seat in the armchair facing her. "You know why I am here."

"No."

"You haven't heard what I am going to say."

"No." She repeated.

"It's not me love, it's your father who says so. He wants you to be married and better with someone you are familiar with." She looked pointedly at him. "I wrote to you for a year, I thought you didn't wish to reply to my letters until I found out your father kept them from me."

"Things could've been different between us if you'd known."

She remained silent. He pulled his chair closer and rested his hand on top of hers. "Let me make things better. Yes?" He asked, showing that serious but humble smile of his that won her over she was a naïve girl of twenty four.

She snatched it away. "I am pregnant with my husband's child." She said delivering the heavy blow. "It will be a son and he will have no other father but Henry who is my true husband and I will refuse to lie with another man on pain of adultery."

"It's not adultery. Your father and my family have agreed your marriage to Henry Valois was not true marriage-"

She laughed. "Is that what they are saying now? How funny. Years ago it would be my mother whose marriage would be broken then her rival and that woman's rival and now mine just so I can marry my handsome Duke. Tell me Your Grace where were you when I suffered the taunts and insults at queen Katherine's hand? Where were you when I needed you to rescue me? You never came to my aid.

You never said a word about me to any of your family. The only reason you waited for me was because you deluded yourself just as I that we were made for each other but the truth is that we weren't. You were much a pawn of your family's politics as I was and when the contract expired and you were recalled, just as a good obedient son.  
Henry for all his faults did not hesitate to defend me before my father sent his guards to arrest me."

"You want to help me?" She asked leaning forward. "Take me to back to France and forget you ever met me." And to deliver the last blow she added, "I won't be an adulterer. I won't follow my father's example and if you really care for me you will forget you were ever here and go back."

"I'm afraid it's not that easy," Lowering his eyes then raising them, he gave her that cheeky smile that she once found charming.

"I mean it. I have no intention of marrying you. I am already married. If I marry you I would be committing the greatest offense-"

"You always had a penchant for the dramatic."

"God would never forgive me and even if he does I know I wouldn't."

"What if you were never legally married? If your father found some loophole in the contract then would you marry me?"

"No."

She stood up. "I am the wife of Henry of Valois, Dauphin of France, if you care for me you will go to my father and tell him what I've told you."

Philip nodded but before he did he said "I will tell him no such thing, I will tell him what you've told me but I will not tell him I refuse for I do love you."

"Do you?" Mary asked, her tone ringing with incredulity.

"I don't think I ever stopped." He knelt and took her hand. She did not pull away. "I meant it back then when I promised I would marry you and you would be my wife, if I could have had a choice I would've not hesitated to take you. I know how much you want to be happy, if I had a choice I would let you go but I can't and I won't because I love you."

It was too late for that. Mary wanted to tell him but seeing his eyes she felt the familiar affection she'd felt for him. It evaporated as soon as she felt a sharp pain in her abdomen.

"Mary?"

She didn't respond. She pushed her hand on her abdomen. Please, please, please, she thought desperately, not today, not today.

The pain left her as soon as it came.

She opened her eyes and saw Philip's worried face. "It's nothing. I am alright, I am alright."

Philip rose to his feet and sent for his personal physician. He told him that Mary was alright but that her pregnancy was a delicate one and she needed to exercise and stay away from things that stressed her so she could carry the child to term.

Philip nodded, bid him farewell then turned to Mary. She didn't look at him, she turned her head to the window ignoring his complaints.

"You didn't tell me that you were having troubles with your pregnancy. If you want me to talk to the king later I will do so but you have to do something for the child you're carrying, if you don't care about me that's fine but you won't stop me from forcing you to care about you and the child."

"It doesn't matter."

"It does. He or she will need its mother."

Mary shrugged.

"Have you stopped to think what you will do once it's born? My father was not an understandable man, he had many bastards before he impregnated my mother and my mother hardly had one night's rest. He bedded her every night to ensure he would have his promised heir."

She smirked. If he thought this appealed to her sense of empathy he was wrong.

He went on. "I was a little boy when she told me this I was as young as you were when your father met Bess' mother. I believed it was my mother's fault my father died and that our duchy was impoverished. I became hungry for gory and ambitious and before long I realized how much like my father I was. I never cared for anything but myself and didn't manage my states as well as I should have but when my older brother Otto and your former stepmother, my cousin Anne told me the king's proposal I took the first ship to England and met you. You-"

"Made you realize that your states were important and you became an important Duke with greater states and more money." She said wheeling to face him, her arms crossed. "Do you think I'm that stupid that I don't see behind your guise you want my money to aggrandize your states?"

"My states have already been aggrandized by my late cousin's death and new management. I don't need more money. I can live off the rest of my life living off the money my land gives me and settle for another Wittelsbach to marry but I chose to leave those behind for you."

"How noble of you."

"I am not lying. I wanted to make things better for my duchy and the county I inherited and if I wanted I could've sped things up by marrying countless women that were promised to me but I didn't, I chose you." He put his arms around her "If you want to hate me you can hate me after the child is born."

"So you can make me feel guilty when you grab her and parade her before all of London so they can see how charitable their new princess' husband is?"

"You really think me capable of stooping so low?"

"I don't know what to think. Two months ago I was in Henry's arms waiting to tell him the glorious news."

"He doesn't know?"

"Of course he does. By now everyone will know. My father will not let one bastard take your name, neither will your illustrious family. If he didn't tell him already his aunt did, she was there when the midwife told me I was with child." She faced him. "How will it feel seeing another man's child in your arms when you hold him?"

"What makes you think it's a son?"

"It is a son. I feel it. And when he is born just as my ancestors I will use him to get rid of you and all those who've wronged me."

He chuckled.

"I am not joking."

"I know, I've seen you when you're angry, I almost feel sorry for all the boys that will be chasing your daughter."

She dashed in a fury and locked herself in her bedchamber. She refused to marry that insufferable man. What had made her fall in love with the first place? What was she thinking.

She wasn't thinking, she had been stupid, young and naive.

She harbored the vain hope Henry would come and rescue her but deep down she knew she was just deluding herself.

Henry would not risk his kingdom for her, even if he wanted to. His father wouldn't let him and his aunt would convince him otherwise. Knowing Marguerite she would have custody over her children as they were the next heirs of France after Henry and raise them to be perfect little princes molded in her image.

At least they are safe.

She couldn't say the same for this one. She gazed down at her growing belly.

* * *

Philip had promised to take care of her and she knew Philip would but she couldn't accept no other father than Henry.

Philip closed his eyes. The meeting with the King went better than he expected. They fixed a date for their wedding after he promised he would look after the child. He cringed at the word 'bastard' when the King mentioned that his or her income would come from the queen's charity.

Katherine Howard also predicted that she would give birth to a daughter and was already ordering robes for the christening and little dresses to dress the infant after her christening.

Philip wished the king could be more sensitive to his daughter's needs. He didn't see the tired face he saw today, he didn't see how she cringed in pain when the child nearly left her. The doctor had told him that her condition was worsened by the fact she refused to eat and go out.

Philip attempted to coax Mary for a walk after he talked to her father but she said outright no. "I am late for my bath and if I want my child clean of body if I can't have him clean of spirit, I must be alone then."

Each day was worse. She refused hot soups, fruit juices, everything they offered her and her behavior was becoming troublesome for the maids who ran away scared and crying back to him and his cousin Anne.

"Give her time, she will accept you." Anne said.

"I don't think she will cousin. I think it was a mistake coming here." He said but Anne told him not to give up. She knew her cousin was not nicknamed the warrior just for his prowess on the battlefield.

"We Cleves are fighters just as you Wittelsbach are not quiters."

But every day he found himself regretting. One day he was getting ready to leave when he heard crying coming from Mary's bedchamber. He knocked on her door but no one answered. To his surprise it was half opened. He got in and found Mary on the floor with her hands underneath her nightgown touching her groin.

She took her hands out and they were covered with blood.

"Oh Gott." He said in his native language and knelt next to her and pulled her to an embrace. She was distraught she didn't even squirm and swung her arms around his neck, staining his dark velvet red doublet. "My baby." she said.

"Shhh... maybe it's not gone." He said rubbing her back. There was no denying the stain on her gown, a huge red but maybe the child was still alive. He heard of many cases where women bled and they still got to keep their babies. He'd seen it with his own mother when she carried Lotte. After his father died she'd become depressed and thought she'd lost the child when she bled greater than Mary but luckily she didn't.

"I will go get the Doctor-"

"No please stay."

"I can't-"

"Please."

"Alright but you have to let me get you to see the doctor first."

"No. I don't want to see anyone, I want you."

I want you. Philip looked down on Mary and saw the face he fell in love with. He decided to stay until she fell asleep which he prayed it was soon.

"Philip ... are you there?"

"Yes. I am here." He said. I'm not going to leave you. He thought.

She closed her eyes after a long hour of being lulled and rocked. Philip kissed her forehead then her lips lovingly and put her on the bed. He went for his doctor and took him to Mary's chambers hoping that he wasn't too late.

Mary was sleeping peacefully, unaware of the hushed and concerned voices in her chamber.

"Is the baby still alive then?"

"I can't say. It could be. I've never seen a case like this. Your mother suffered a similar episode."

"Yes I remember with Lotte."

The doctor nodded. "Hers passed quickly though. With your future bride, it's hard to say. It's too early and the child might be lost unless she is carrying twins which she could've lost one and be carrying the other. Even so, there is only one way to know and for that we need to bring one of the midwives."

"Or we could just touch her stomach."

The doctor looked shocked by the suggestion. "You've been studying women's births all your life doctor, don't you want to prove your theories correct once and for all?"

The suggestion was outrageous. Birth was a woman's business, he was a doctor, a theologian and a scholar, his theories were based on observation and experimentation yes, but touching a woman's pregnant body was another matter entirely! The church condemned it and while the new faith allowed for certain liberties, it still frowned upon it.

But Philip was persistent and seeing how the young Duke cared for his future bride the doctor agreed on it.

"Help me turn her. Gently." he instructed. They turned her. Philip laid his hands gently on her. "What am I supposed to look for?"

"You must feel a tremor at either side, if there is none shift your hands across and press harder but not too hard." The doctor cautioned.

Philip did that but he felt nothing. For the next ten minutes he spent shifting his hands across looking for any sign of life then -"I feel it."

"Touch the spot again, gently."

"I feel it. It's very weak."

"That's good. The fetus is not fully formed so it's not supposed to be active. On the morrow I will consult with some of the queen's midwives and ask them if they can see lady Mary. Meanwhile you must remain with her and make sure she eats."

"What about the bleeding?"

"There's no more blood, is there? It's clearly it's healed but you must be on alert, this was a close call. If she continues to be stubborn she will lose the baby."

Philip nodded and thanked the doctor. He stayed with her the entire night, occasionally shifting her, changing her pillow when he thought it was too uncomfortable on her and kept prodding on her growing belly. Every time he pushed his hands on it he would feel the kicks of the child.

Sleep came to him before sunrise, his arms were wrapped around waist, holding her protectively close to him.


	4. Chapter 4

_"It's been a while since I could hold my head up high  
and It's been a while since I first saw you  
and It's been a while since I could stand on my own two feet again  
and It's been a while since I could call you  
And everything I can remember is fucked up as it all may seem  
The consequences that I've rendered  
I stretch myself beyond my means  
and It's been a while since I could say that I wasn't addicted  
and It's been a while since I could look myself as well as  
__and It's been a while since I've gone and fucked things up like I always do  
__and It's been a while _but that shit disappears when I'm with you  
And everything I can remember is fucked up as it all may seem  
The consequences that I've rendered  
I'm going to fuck things up again  
and again!  
Why must I feel this way?  
Just make this go away  
Just one more thing to say  
_It's been a while _since I could look in myself straight  
and _It's been a while _cine I've said I'm sorry  
and _It's been a while _since I've seen the candles light your face  
and _It's been a while _but I can still remember the ay you taset  
And everything I can remember is fucked up as it all may seem  
And Can I Blame This On My Father?  
He did the best he could for me  


___And __It's been a while _since I could hold my head up high  
And _It's been a while _since I've said I'm sorry." -It's been a while by Staind

Mary woke up. She found Philip sitting by the bed. He had woken early and saw her shifting uncomfortably in the covers. "Hi."

"Hi." She said. "Where you here all night?" He nodded. She looked down at her bloodstained night gown, it still bore the stain of last night. "I guess it's all lost. Henry will never want me back now. You were right. It seems like I am going to be forced to the alter…"

"The baby is not dead."

"What?"

"I sent my doctor to examine you last night. He says the dangers has passed but you need to take better care of yourself."

"So I am still going to marry you?"

"Yes."

"Won't your family be jealous when you drag me to the alter fully grown with child."

"Nothing would please my family more to see me married even if it's to a Catholic." Both laughed at this.

She lifted her hand and touched his pale cheek. "What?"

"Nothing. I've never noticed your eyes. They are green."

"They're blue but in this light they seem green."

"Oh."

"They're green." He admitted. He pulled a chair and sat. "I know you're scared but I promise I will do everything in my power to protect you both."

They heard the bustling sounds of horse hooves and heavy footsteps outside. The King's delegation and Philip's had come. "I should g." He said and promised kissed her forehead, saying he would be back.

Mary smiled broadened when he said this. Stop this Mary. He will leave you just like the rest.  
She shook these thoughts aside chasing them away with the memory of his presence still lingering, even after he left. He only wants your Crown. _No. _If he wanted to leave her why not leave her there when he found her lying on the floor?

Her mind then said He is not Henry. He wasn't. He was caring, he was attentive, loving and humble but he was not Henry. He was not her husband.

* * *

Her father fixed the date of their marriage for before she gave birth. The marriage ceremony was not ostentatious, she suspected her "new" husband Philip had a hand in that.

Archbishop Cranmer presided over the ceremony, it was followed by a small banquet with all of England's important nobles.

Mary's hand rested on her belly. She was very heavy and it was expected she would enter her confinement very soon. The king was worried she could be carrying twins and he wasn't the only to hold this suspicion.

Katherine told her uncle that her stepdaughter was not very receptive to her before the wedding. She invited Mary to court to stay with in her chamber but she refused! It was only Henry's intervention that made her daughter oblige.

"I can't stand her anymore. Every day she grows fatter and people revere her as if she's their savior. We must get rid of her."

"No. People would ask too many questions." The Duke of Norfolk said trying to calm his frantic niece.

"What am I supposed to do then? Henry awaits the birth and chastises me already for not bearing him another son." She thought he'd be happy with the one she gave him.

"Just do what you always do. Smile and pretend to be happy and show yourself joyful at his attentions whenever he gives them to you. As for the lady of Bavaria, give her something nice when the child is born."

"I don't want to."

"But you will." Thomas said. "An act of kindness Katherine will save you a lot of trouble along the road, especially with her. If she gives boys and it is likely she will, start sowing new clothes, instead of baby dresses intended for a girl, give her small hats, caps, shoes, even buy her little brats toys. She will love that and after that she will have no more reason to hate you."

"She will." She said. Her uncle didn't see the way Mary looked at her. She would always hate her and after she refused her help and treated her the way she did, Katherine was convinced there was only one way to deal with her.

"Then she will be the one who looks bad and not you. My dear in this world you have to show more affable than your enemies. Always be one step ahead of them. Look to your cousin Anne's example."

"I do." She said and she promised she would never fall like her. Anne's crime was not in not giving the king a son, it was in being too stupid to understand English politics.

Katherine may not be the smartest or amongst the most Cosmopolitan women in Christendom but she understood English politics better than most. Growing up in a poor household as she did, she understood it's not how much you know and where you've been in life that matters but what you can give. She had given the king her body and a son, and she still retained her beauty and her youth and as long as the king had these three he would never tire of her as he did with her cousin.

Anne's mistake was in trapping her enemies with vinegar rather than honey. Kitty had been nice to the Spanish mare, she had tried befriending her but she refused and rebuked her right in her face in the company of her best ladies and then accused her of extravagance and improper conduct. But the wheels had turned on her. Now Mary was the one with improper conduct and she was her subject again.

She was lucky, she didn't know how much. She had a husband that loved her and was going to adopt her bastard child, children if she was carrying twins. Katherine had no such option, she was at the mercy of the king same as everyone else.

An idea popped in her head. "I want to be with the duchess when she gives birth."

Thomas nearly spilled his drink. "A-are you mad?" He laughed. What sort of idiot was she?

"I am not an idiot uncle." Knowing full well what he was thinking. "The lady Mary thinks I'm spiteful to her, I will show her just how spiteful I can be through my kindness."

Thomas looked pointedly at her. He was beginning to see the signs of Howard ambition in her.

"Just what do you have in mind?"

Katherine smiled and pointed to her belly. "I am waiting for another child of the king. When I give birth, if it's a boy I will place her children in his household."

"And if it's a girl?"

The possibility had not been missed on Katherine. "If it is, the more reason to place her children with mine. They would make good companions for my little princess and the king won't deny my request to tie one of them in marriage."

Thomas was impressed. Underneath all that make up and pretty clothes there was actually a brain.

But her plan was flawed by one thing. "If all are boys?"

"So what uncle? I could still have more children, the king may be old but I'm young and while he lives he will still get more children for me."

The time came to put the couple to bed. The consummation consisted of a simple act, with Mary's pregnancy however it was a great obstacle but the Archbishop and the king's men had resolved it the same way they had resolved his late sister Mary's union to the late king of France Louis.

The curtains were drawn and Philip pushed his leg on her groin and that was enough for the members of parliament and the Archbishop who left afterwards.

Mary woke with great pains in her abdomen. "Here drink this."

It tasted awful. Mary spit it.

"What is it?"

"Juice."

"I want wine."

"You don't. Wine can affect the baby. This is more effective."

"It tastes horrible. Bring me wine." She missed the familiar taste of it. Burgundian wine was her favorite.

Philip shook his head. He was used to her theatrics by now. She seemed like Lotte when she got mad, it was no doubt the product of the pregnancy.

All items that might've been damaging for the child's development had been removed. Images of slain saints or tapestries depicting war and portraits of evil kings. The room was left completely bare with the exception of two images, a silver cross –a gift from the queen, and the portrait of her great-grandmother, Elizabeth Woodville. It was a very rare portrait and the first Mary had seen of her.

Her father never talked of her much, being she died months before his birth but she was often told how beautiful she was. Her tutors often left out the parts of her great piety, focusing on her rapacity of her family instead, instilling in her a great humility so she wouldn't fall pretty to the demons that haunted Elizabeth Woodville's career.

Mary never believed these things. She read the history of the cousins' war, the death of king Arthur and the life of her grandmother Elizabeth of York and she thought it illogical that a woman who was so beautiful, so loving, and so loved by her people could have such an ambitious and godless woman for a mother.

But appearances mattered. And in England it was what others wrote of you that remained. Like her mother.

She found Elizabeth's gentle yet stern eyes looking back at her, judging her. She wished she could speak to the woman to ask her how did she survive all those years in sanctuary, first when the city of London was sacked by Warwick's forces to bring back the Lancastrian king then under Richard III when he disinherited her children. She was the only queen of those wars to survive it all and yet she wrote nothing of her experience that could've given Mary comfort at this moment.

"I think the baby is coming. I feel it." She said drinking more of Philip's potion and putting it down to put his hand on her swollen belly.

He shook his head for a third time. "No, it's just normal pain Mary."

"How can it be normal? It hurts so much. Ah!" She sat upright and grabbed Philip's hand squeezing it hard. "Please Philip bring me the midwives, I need them here, I cannot do this alone."

"You will do it and you won't be alone. I will be here with you."

"I won't leave." He said.

He softened his tone and pushed a strand of red hair from her face. Their eyes met. The kiss they shared in the ceremony had been brief, almost non-existent.

He leaned forward and pushed his lips gently against her, locking them for a kiss.

He didn't push them away and surprisingly neither did she, she responded to the kiss just as eagerly and after she felt him getting closer she pushed her tongue inside his mouth, moaning as he felt his hands around her.

Henry … she screamed aloud in her mind. Her vision swirled with images of Henry, their hunting trips, their picnics, when he set her down on the bed and plunged himself into her … then the images dissolved and were replaced by Philip. The time he came, when he spoke of her to Anne, their first kiss, now …

She pulled violently and turned away from him, struggling to breathe as she felt the imprint of his kiss still lingering.

Her thoughts turned on Philip and Henry. How different were they. And how alike. Both cared for her but only one had taken the decision to save her and whisk her away from his father's men. She turned to him. There was no visible expression on his face, not any that she could make out.

He was visibly shock and panting just as her. He took a step forward but then stepped backwards. He wanted to kiss her again and leave more than just an imprint on her face, he wanted to make love to her. But in her fragile state with her moods as unpredictable as they were, he couldn't trust her.

What if it was Henry she was thinking when he kissed her, what if it was somebody else?

He shook his head mentally. He knew Mary better than that, her pious behavior throughout all her life would not allow her to betray her loved ones. But she was no longer a girl raised under the watchful eye of her staunchly mother and her tutors, she was a grown woman who felt the need to be loved as much as any lady in her father's court and so far away from the man who bedded and wedded her (he was sure in that order) she would invariably turn to someone else to fill that vacuum that his absence had left her with.

"I am sorry. I shouldn't have done that." He said, straightening himself. "I will go for the midwives."

"Wait-" But he was already gone. Mary felt a deep hole in her chest. She had enjoyed the kiss and she wanted him to kiss her again but thoughts of Henry and her children prevented her.

"What is wrong with me?" Her husband was despairing and sending troops after her father and her cousin who were the enemy. She should hate Philip by what he did and be more active in her support of Henry. But he was there and she was here.

She felt the familiar kicks of her child. They all insisted they were two but she knew better. She had borne three children already and gone through two pregnancies, Philip's doctor and her father's knew no better. They were men who distrusted in midwives simply because they were women and many still followed the old ways.  
She did not like it when Doctor Butts said she should drink this or that and lie a certain way. She always spit on his remedies after he left and called in the midwives to give her some of their remedies. She kept her mother's rosary with her just in case she needed it. With her sons he had no need of it, they were painful but she had her women around her to attend her ever whim.

Here she could not expect such treatment. The queen was likely to taunt her sending her ladies to do it for her and her father would send his doctor as well to take charge over the midwives.

It was funny, when she thought again of the kiss then her father. Maybe she was like him after all.

The doors were opened and the midwives were followed by Philip and the queen.

"I think it's time the lady Mary enters her confinement. Wouldn't you agree my lady?"

Mary looked to Philip who gave her a look she had no choice. "Yes, Your Majesty."

"Let's move you to my private quarters. Your father has ordered you be moved from court to Syon on the morrow. His Grace is welcome to follow if he wants."

"No. That won't be necessary. My wife will be in good hands and with she will have more than enough company. I would just be a burden."

Mary opened her mouth but stopped.

"That's a shame, we were looking forward to your visit. We will write to you after we arrive. Come lady Mary."

Mary turned to Philip. He looked regretful and completely worn out. He had been giving a lot of thought when he told the king and queen of her condition, part of him wanted to agree with them and follow her to Syon but he decided against it. His presence there would only confuse her more and she was right, her heart still belonged to Henry.

He intended to win her just as he had before but on his own terms after she accepted him and saw him for the honorable man he was.

* * *

She didn't know why she'd bothered. He'd left her just as before. She slumped down on the sette waiting for any news of her father. He was just as anxious as his other powerful lords to know the sex of the child. If it was a boy he would be in his custody and considered a threat for his precious Edward and his Duke of York, if it was a girl he would use her to establish military alliances with some of them and say that this was God's divine punishment on her for disobeying.

Either way she came out the looser.

She laughed. Her ladies, daughters of her father's most powerful men and Elizabeth and the queen's ladies were already used to seeing her like this. She should've just continued with her father even if she remained unmarried.

"Mary?"

She turned to her sister. "May I sit with you?"

She nodded and made room for her.

Her sister was giant as a whale but she managed to show more radiance than the queen's ladies who dressed in more sumptuous clothes an excessive jewelry. The queen showing herself charitable to her eldest stepdaughter gave her a new set of pillows, shoes, gowns, chemises, nightgowns, and sew clothes for her upcoming baby. Most of which were made for a daughter which Mary now hoped she was.

Elizabeth saw her sister's worry as she held one of these. "Do you think it will be a boy?"

"No. I don't think so."

"I would sure like it to be a boy. The queen is expecting too and she bears a daughter maybe you and the queen can join both of your children in marriage."

"I don't think that is going to happen Elizabeth."

"She is not evil you know Mary. She does want to make things better for you."

"I am sure she does."

"I mean it Mary. You can't blame her for the way she acts. She has had nothing all her life then suddenly she finds herself queen of England. What other behavior could you have expected and …" Elizabeth paused knowing her sister would be mad but she had to hear it. "… you did insult when you refused to pay her respect."

"Respect? I knelt before that woman, I acknowledged her as my queen, I even gave her gifts-"

"That is not enough." Elizabeth said softly but firmly, her gaze penetrating her sister's. There were times where she could be so much like her mother it almost scared her, but today she was behaving as their father when he tried to prove a point. "If you want to ingratiate yourself to our father's wives it's more than just gifts and sweet words you have to give, you have to prove that you like her and accepted her not just as our father's wife but as your equal, otherwise how can you expect her to respect you when you're not given it back?"

"You are too young to understand these things Elizabeth. I cannot accept her as my father's wife. That position belonged to my mother."

"So it did to mine. Or have you forgotten I was also declared a bastard right after you?"

"That's not what I meant-" Mary said but Elizabeth cut her off.

"No but you did. It's okay Mary, I know you didn't bare any love for my mother and if I had been in your position I would've acted the same but that was long ago and she is my mother regardless of what you still think of her and Kitty is my aunt and so far the only one who's ever treated me as I was treated when my parents were married."

Mary was hurt at this and her expression deeply reflected it but her sister was unmoved.

"She treated me with respect Mary. For many years I was the shame of my father's House, everyone knew me to be the daughter of the witch, the whore, the woman who wrecked your parents' marriage, in some respects I still blame that stigma but unlike the faction Kitty's family represents she doesn't treat me with that contempt and she doesn't buy into their propaganda, she sees me as I am, as Elizabeth, the daughter of a King."

"What about me? I also treated you with respect."

"You never said so."

"Because I didn't see any reason to show off my generosity as she does. When I treat someone with respect Elizabeth I don't show it off or shout it to everyone how gracious I am because deep down I know I've done my good deed and to answer the question I see in your eyes, no, I didn't do it just score a mark on my good deeds list with the church. I did it because I loved you and I still do and if you want to look on me like some ungrateful brat go ahead. I don't care," She rose and her ladies were quickly around her like mother hens, she slapped one and threw another to the ground and they immediately scattered like scared chicks.

"As a matter of fact I don't care what all of you think of me!" She shouted walking backwards through the door. Her sister looked on with an expressionless face thinking her sister had finally sank to the point of no return. Living an idyllic life she did not know what sorrow was or being stigmatized, she thought the best or the worst of people based on her own experiences without giving two hoots for others' feelings. In some respects she was just like her mother, the sainted Catherine of Aragon who like Helen of Sparta plunged an entire country into war just to keep her title.

Her face fell then rose again meeting her sister's eyes who were so full of hatred and regret, it marred the splendor of her dress and beauty. "How sad."

"Now you feel sad for me?" Mary asked, her voice ringing with incredulity.

"No, I feel sadness for the child in your belly because he or she will have to contest with a mother who is not only filled with hatred but who will fill her child's head with impossible dreams but also make him or her suffer once it finds that all it's been told was a lie." _A sweet lie just like your mother, sister._

Mary gave a dry laugh. "You are so much like your parents you know, you think you are better than everyone else. Mary is a sick bitch because she is the Spaniard's daughter. But let me tell you something sweet little sister." She walked dangerously to her sister brushing a strand of her ridiculously messy red hair away from her face. "I may be the daughter of the Spanish mare but I know the truth behind our mothers' fall from grace."

"And what truth is that?" Elizabeth asked coldly.

Mary smirked and whispered in her ear. Elizabeth looked stunned at her, Mary smiled then left the room.

"What did she say my lady?"

"They were not good enough whores."

"What?"

"They were not good enough whores, that's what she said."

The ladies gasped, even the dumbest and most spiteful of Katherine Howard's covered her mouth and her eyes were full of shock just as the rest.

They all expected she would say something that insulted Elizabeth about her own mother but they never expected it would include her own!

The lady they knew who revered and kissed the image of her mother Catherine of Aragon would never say such an awful thing but none of them knew that that lady had died the moment her father had cast her from his realm when she married Henry and welcomed her back when he forced into a forceful union with the Duke of Bavaria. The little girl they'd known and later laughed about was dead. In her place was something else, something entirely unrecognizable that was beautiful, majestic and deadly. Something that no longer empathized or felt anything for her former loved ones but hate.

Her father had abandoned her for his darling rose without a thorn until she gave birth to her third son and he begun to look at her again –as a tool. Then Philip and finally Henry. He hadn't come back to rescue her as he promised and exact terrible vengeance on her family. When Charles de Marillac was recalled she knew it was the last she would ever hear from her husband but she expected better. The man she knew would not tire of fighting, he would not tire of trying. He would board the first ship to England and rescue her in the same knightly fashion he had taken her.

You're a fool Mary Tudor. _A sweet fool._

There would be no rescue, no white prince, no happy ending for her, that only happened in the songs and fairy tales her mother and lady Salisbury used to read to her. If she was to survive this treacherous world she had to rely on herself and only herself.

Putting both hands on her belly she recited prayer, this one to herself instead of God since He had abandoned her too, begging the child to die. _It_ would be born to a life of prejudice, suffering and intrigues, always put second behind its "legitimate" half siblings, used and sold off just as she was by her father or her brothers or whoever was on the throne. There would be no justice in the world for a bastard like him or her, it would be better if it was never born.

* * *

The birth came that night as quietly as the rest of her pregnancy. "Take strips of warm cloth and put them on the duchess' forehead just in case we have to avoid a fever." The queen commanded. She looked down on her stepdaughter. "You will be alright lady Mary, you have the best doctors in Christendom."

I would rather have midwives.

The doctors moved against the clock to deliver the king's eldest daughter's child. Their suspicions they were two where shattered when only one babe came followed by the afterbirth.

Mary screamed as the baby escaped her, thinking it was over but she forgot about the afterbirth that hurt just as much. She was not even an hour old and she was already causing her more pain than the rest of her relatives put together.

Henry would've been proud to hold his baby girl in his arms. He wanted a daughter, he'd spoken to her the day before her capture. He dreamed of having a little girl he could coddle and call his little princess. -Red head and sapphire eyed like you -he'd said.

When she looked down on her child the hatred she felt for her father and the child melted right away. She is beautiful. With olive skin auburn hair, perfect shaped sapphire colored eyes, the perfect mixture between Henry and her though she had more Tudor than Valois.

"Mi nina" she said silently using the name her mother used for her when she was a child, then kissed her forehead.

Elizabeth entered the chamber after she and the baby had been swapped with fresh linen and clean clothes. Mary heard her and invited her to come next to her. She was glad her sister was not mad at her anymore. She didn't want things to be left the way they were after their arguments, especially when Mary was still the person she cared for the most after their father.

"Do you want to hold her?"

Elizabeth nodded.

Mary placed the child in her arms.

"Be careful Bess."

The queen did not need to warn her, Elizabeth had a perfect control of the situation. Better than her sister in fact, the child was calmed when she was with her and calmer when she was with the queen.

Mary smiled sadly. Perhaps it was better this way, rather than dying she had given the child and opportunity to live as Elizabeth and Katherine's little pet project. They would coddle her and lavish her with gifts and presume their 'kindness' over to the ambassadors as they loved to display their acts of generosities in large scale whenever and to whoever they could find. It was not the life she had expected for her but between being seen as an unwanted burden or dead, this was better than both.

* * *

Philip arrived the day after. He had not accepted the role of godfather to the child even though it would place him above the other noblemen chosen to play that role for her child; he preferred the king chose for her, that way the child would find preferment amongst the elites and maybe someday marry into one of them.

Mary was still in her period of absence, that ritual performed by her faith where women would wait for nearly forty days until they could re-eneter the world again. He didn't care for such rituals and Elizabeth had sent him a letter to come quick, telling him everything that had transpired.

He expected to find a bitter and sad woman but instead he found a joyful woman whose smile was unlike any he had seen on her or any person before.

"Philip. You shouldn't be here. Men are not allowed."

"I know but I'm not known to be a good Christian by your standards."

She smiled at his poor attempt to joke. "What did they name my daughter?"

"Henrietta Catherine."

"It figures. My father putting his name and Katherine's on his bastard grandchild to shame me." then she asked "Why weren't you there?"

"I preferred to stay with you until your churching."

"It won't be in other two or three week, maybe five."

"I have time." He said thrusting his hand in hers.

He is not Henry. Her mind repeated. And he wasn't but he was the only tool she had to fight her enemies.


	5. Chapter 5

_"There is only one hell. The one we're living in." -Melisandre_

_Henry broke into a fury unseen by any of his peers. "What do you mean she is married?"_

_"You heard us. She married the Duke of Bavaria and Count Palatine on the fifteenth. Your daughter is in the king and queen's custody and she is expecting their first child." Marguerite calmly explained._

_Charles, his father, and his mistress and wife sat next to her, all looking at Henry with sympathy and pity._

_Henry did not want their pity. He wanted his wife!_

_"You can't." Marguerite said, getting annoyed by her nephew's rants. "She is in England now and as long as she remains there she is out of your reach."_

_"But not yours. Father, I know you wish to strike at the heart of England. Now is a good chance-"_

_"I am sorry Henry but I will not risk my kingdom for your personal feelings."_

_"She is my wife, the mother of my children-"_

_"Your children no longer matter to her. She is having another child by that Duke and in any case she's done her duty to France. She's given you sons, three at that and all very healthy."_

_"She is no longer needed." His mistress said, cutting to her lover's chase._

_Henry's eyes flashed with hatred at her. He looked to his father who was in agreement with Anne and the rest of their family present._

_"You can't mean this. You are going to leave the future Queen of France-"_

_"She is not your Queen of France and I am still King." Francis said firmly. He walked towards Henry and put his hand on his shoulder, Henry tried to shake it off but his father's grip was strong. "When I am gone and she still continues there it will serve you as a lesson. You always let the women in your life control you, if you had your way we would be having Diane as your wife by now, thank god that He answered our prayers and finished her before her influence got too great on you."_

_"Keep Diane out of this."_

_"So you still love her? Ha, ha, you are a fool Henry, a stupid loving fool. I thank god every day she and Catherine are dead because if both had lived they would've given you children who later would've fought like hens for their daddy's attention. I raised you better than that Henry."_

_"They would not have, either one of them would've made a great queen and Mary will make a great one."_

_"You are still undeterred. Then you leave me no choice."_

_With a heavy heart and one last look at his son he signaled to the guards to take him. Henry screamed "What is this!?"_

_"What I should've done. Your love for her is admirable Henry. I love that you love her but it's also dangerous. Just how many kings of England have let their kingdoms fall for following their hearts rather than their heads? Your children will see what happens when you do that."_

_"Daddy." His children came in, his two eldest barely three but understanding full well what was happening and his youngest sensing this would be the last time he saw him, waved him off.  
_

_"No. You can't let them see this. Father!" The guards dragged him away and locked him in his guest chambers. _

Francis, his oldest son and heir had been unmoved by what he saw or so it seemed. Inside he was shaking with terror but he also realized that what had just happened was his parents' doing and the lesson he received today would mark the boy for life and turn him into one of the most pragmatic kings in France, if not Europe.

* * *

Mary hated what she was doing to Philip. He was a good man and he loved her but her heart was still with Henry.

It was funny. How long before Henry comes to rescue me? He promised he would soon before her father recalled Marillac and all other French emissaries. He gave her a letter signed by the king of France himself saying his troops would soon surround her father's before he reached the town of Bologne. It was not to be. Somehow he'd intercepted her letter and punished her by taking guardianship of her daughter. She was allowed to see her every day but with Katherine present. Her father's kitten had given birth to a small boy. Her father was so thrilled he had instantly forgotten about his anger but still refused to give her custody.

Philip promised her she would have her child back when she gave birth. They had agreed to consummate her marriage in the true sense of the word, to Philip it was an act of love and reconciliation, to her it was a calculated act. The child in her belly would be her way out of here. If it was a boy her father would prize her, just as he prized his wife and she would get her true child back.

She could not love this child, she was determined when it was born she would act the fool, the loving mother just as her mother had done when Fitzroy was born. She would drink to it and speak on its behalf and nurse it to health whenever it needed it or was sick, but she would never love it.

* * *

I wish you didn't have to have a mother like me –she told it when it was placed in her arms. She had rehearsed this speech countless times.

Her father had entered the room with Philip and his councilors. His first trueborn grandson, and the first grandson to be placed in his hands.

He didn't pay much attention to her well being, he would only shift his glance to her when the child was place back in her arms but he would not speak to her.

He was still angry at her. And his councilors didn't blame him. They had always been wary of the lady Mary since her acceptance of her father's Oath, deep down she would always be a Catholic and a threat to their interests. Now that she was married to a heretic, it made her more dangerous. If she wanted after Edward inherited the throne, she could pull some cock and bull scheme like her mother did and claim her marriage to Philip wasn't true and disinherit her own son in favor of her French bastards.

It became of the utmost importance that the lady Mary never inherited. They'd spoken about it for some time but neither of them had the courage to tell their king. Edward was left with the task. He told the king about it, knowing full well how to approach him and the king immediately agreed. Signing a secret document he decreed after his sons his daughters would follow *but*if they failed to follow the ordinances of his church, parliament would have the absolute right to disinherit them in favor of their male heirs of their choosing. That left Mary's children by Henry disinherited.

Edward smiled sadly. He felt pity for the duchess. He'd come to admire her since her return to court when Jane was still queen. He had bowed the lowest because he knew not many could've endured the things she did. And now he'd cause her demise. It was a small price to pay for the security of the realm. There was a lot of corruption in England and sometimes the best way to stamp it out was making a deal with the devil. Henry cared for nothing but his bloody inheritance. He believed his sons were the future and it served Edward's purposes to use the king's paranoia to his advantage.

* * *

She expected her son would gain her daughter's guardianship but she was deadly wrong. When she refused to hold him after Philip had gone hunting with the Earls of Hertford, Surrey, and the Dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk, her father came storming in her room, furious.

Smoke seemed to come out of his ears.

"Give the child to the duchess."

"My lord, she doesn't want it-"

"I am not your lord woman, I am your King. Give the child to your mistress."

Her maid of honor nodded and cowered away to her mistress, handing her the child but Mary thrust it to another woman's arms.

"Mary."

Silence.

She looked away.

Henry grabbed her and forced her to her feet. "Take the child."

"Give me my daughter back."

"Take the child now or I swear I will do something you will regret the rest of your life."

Seeing no escape and not caring for his tantrums, she walked slowly after he let her go to her youngest maid of honor and took the child of her.

She gave it a few rocks to calm it down. Unlike his sister he didn't cry when he was in his mother's arms, he seemed to enjoy her presence far better than his sister did.

"There. Can I be alone now lord father?"

"No. I will stay here until your husband returns."

"He may not return until nightfall-"

"Then it will give you more time to act motherly." He snapped and pulled a chair in front of her and sat down. There was a small table between them where food and wine was brought.

Mary felt a deep hatred inside, it was devouring her. The child in her arms did nothing to lessen it. If he cried and spit at her like her sweet little Henri had done when she last visited her, it would've made her job easier. Hating while the child loved her made her feel guilty.  
She lay eyes on her father whose eyes, sapphire as hers, pierced hers. "Drink." He instructed.

Mary, careful not to drop her son, grabbed one of the goblets and drank. "Burgundian." She said.

"Your favorite. Your husband's family brought it from you from Cleves for birthing their future duke and count palatine."

"How nice of them. I don't suppose you had something to do with it."

"You are very clever." He said with a smirk. "But I did not for once, it was all your husband."

"He cares for you." He said after a long silence. "He bought the most expensive jewels and dresses for you and that new rosary that hangs from your girdle."

"I know and I didn't want them. I was content with my mother's rosary and my other gowns."

"Your other gowns were worn down and torn and you couldn't afford to wear those opulent clothes from the French court to outshine the queen; he also did you a great charity bringing you all these new jewels and commissioning portraits for you and him."

"You must be very happy then, you didn't have to spend a dime and you got to prove to the whole world how merciful you are in letting your disgraced daughter marry a respectable duke who gives you a grandson in the short span of a year."

"I am." Henry said, his tone unapologetic. "It's a shame you're the only one who isn't."

His gaze fell momentarily to his grandson. He worried he would come out too much like his son in law, thankfully it didn't. Only his eyes were blue-green like his father's, but the rest he was like Henry and his great-grandfather, Edward IV.

"Philip is not my husband and you know it. I married under the Catholic church Henry of Valois and from that day until our deaths, we will belong to one another."

The child in her arms began to fidget then settled seeing his mother's firm look, which he took as a look of amusement which made him smile back.

"You are a sweet fool Mary but then you always were just like your mother. You will never see that boy again and the only thing you will have to remember him by is his daughter and even her, is out of your reach." He leaned forward "Did you think I didn't know your plan of escaping with Marillac so you could be with him and take my granddaughter with you?"

Mary's face hardened.

"You have become good at the game of politics but you still need a lot of practice. You don't know how to play this game as I do and I've been through worse than you Mary. If you think what you're going through makes you something especial, it doesn't. It just makes you more vulnerable and prone to sin. I am not stupid, I am not the lovesick fool you husband.  
I can see how you look away every time your son is presented to you when he is not looking and how fast you can change your tune almost as the season to convince others of your plight. And while you have fooled many you don't fool me."

"You hate that child as much as you love your other one. You want everyone to believe that you are different from the rest, that you walk on water but the truth is that deep down you are just the same as every other courtier." Mary pressed both lips together, her lower lip twitched when he spoke again. He ordered one of his wife's ladies who had been commanded to guard her to take the child from her and place it in his arms.

"He is very healthy."

"He is." Mary agreed, trying to suppress her anger. "When your mother and I expected our first child, long before you were born, after she and I married, she bled heavily. You never knew about that? No. I didn't expect you to. Everyone said then our marriage was cursed and that I was a fool for choosing her over every other bride."

"It wasn't either's fault, both your parents agreed to the match." Mary stated, recalling the all too familiar story. Her mother had faced many difficulties when she became her father's queen but she had soon succeeded in establishing her position through humility and grace, just as she had been taught to in her motherland, Spain.

He laughed. "That's where you're wrong. I lied to my father saying I didn't want to marry her so he would push me to her. When your mother arrived clad in red velvet with that Flemish good and long golden earrings dangling from her ears with pearls and rubies we were all stunned by her, we were like love sick teenagers running after an impossible dream. My cousin Buckingham made us a bet that he could get her into his bed if her marriage to Arthur didn't last. Your uncle wasn't a weakling Mary, but neither was he strong. He could shoot and play sports as well as I but he wasn't that smart. When my father learned that Arthur had defied him and decided to move to Wales, he was furious. Ludlow was so far and the weather was harsh but Arthur didn't listen. He was enthralled by his Spanish beauty just as we all were. After my mother died it left a hole in me and I thought I could fill it marrying a more pliable princess just like she, but my father didn't want me to marry a pliable princess, he wanted me to marry someone who would bring me honor. You must know what happened next."

Mary nodded and was about to say but her father interrupted. "No, you don't." He gazed down at her son again and was reminded by Henry again, his firstborn son ever. What a king he would've made. A great one.  
He lifted the child to his lips and kissed his forehead, smelling the scent of newborn around him. His daughter had refused to take in the celebrations of his Christening. He had allowed for her period of churching after Henrietta was born because she was not his trueborn grandchild, but when Edmund Owen was born he had dragged her from her confinement and forced her to be present when they presented him to her after the ceremony. Named after his Welsh ancestors, it was a proud statement of his supremacy over his half siblings whom Henry considered bastards.

When he learned she had given birth to not one but two perfectly healthy boys he was jealous. When he learned she had given birth in less than a year after that to another boy, he was not only jealous, he was furious but overwhelmed and angry at himself. If only he had married her before those grandchildren would be his, born and raised and England and he would have showed them off to the world as proof of Tudor fertility. When he had nearly given up on that, Thomas Howard presented him with the best solution. He knew it would not be easy to convince the other lords of his plan but surprisingly Thomas Cranmer and many lords were very receptive to the idea. Of course, Henry always believed some of them were heretics like the Duke of Bavaria, but as long as he had one more ally and one less from France, Henry didn't care what their motives were to approve of their union.  
He was very pleased with his son in law. Philip of Bavaria was a man of principle and not a fortune hunter as he feared, he still cared for his daughter and he had cared for his estates well enough so he could impress her when he came back. But Mary was a stubborn woman like her mother who thought she could get whatever she wanted just because she was Henry Valois' daughter but Henry had taught her a lesson that as long as she lived, she would always be a subject of England and when he died she would be his sons' subjects and if they died, she would be her son's, her true son.

Edmund's eyes stared at his grandfather. They shared the same color and his hair was the same shade of auburn as his had been in his youth.

"Can I have my son back?"

Henry balanced him on his knee and laughed at his face making the boy giggle. He spoke again. "When my father was near death Mary he asked me do you want to marry the Princess Dowager or Eleanor of Austria, Francis' current wife. I said Eleanor and your grandfather laughed at me and said 'I know what you're playing Henry but trust me, you marry this girl, you will plunge your country into hell'. He signed a document mandating I marry the bride of my choosing and since the bride of my choosing was Eleanor Hapsburg, he had me trapped. But I showed his councilors good. One drunken councilor with two dead whores and two other more bribed and his tax collectors who were present there killed and I changed his will to marry your mother. So there you have it, our happy union. Or it would have been if your mother had not lied countless times."

"My mother never lied. She always told the truth, her confessor said so himself, she was incapable of telling a like, when you would ask her to tell you the truth she would say it no matter how much it displeased you. Why do you still insist on doing this to me? I was your only daughter, your pearl for many years until Elizabeth and Edward and Charles and Thomas came. We were a family and I loved you and you loved me."

He smirked. "I never doubted your love for me but you disappointed me when you chose to honor instead a woman who lied god knows how many times instead of your father who always provided for you."

"Provided?" Now it was her turn to laugh. "You were never there. For my first steps, my first walk, my first words, it was always her or lady Salisbury by her side and you killed her too. How many more father have to die so you can realize it was always me you should've focused on? You keep blaming others for your faults but you have no one to blame than yourself. My mother's dead children were not her fault and neither were Anne's, I see that now."

"Wow Mary that's very touching but the truth is your mother lied to you. When she miscarried her first daughter she paid the doctors so they would tell me she was still with child-"

"I don't believe you. Where is your proof?"

"I have none because like your mother they are all dead but I have it on good word she did because five months after when it was her time to deliver the un-miscarried twin the only thing she delivered was more blood. There was no baby Mary and when she became pregnant with your brother she wrote a letter to her father lying to him that she had miscarried her early on and that the rumors concerning twins were just that, rumors to make her look bad.  
Your mother could lie just as easily as everybody else, she grew under the court of Spain under her mother's watch, she knew very well how to play this game just as her mother did. When your brother was born and it was the happiest day of my life I remember her telling me she would not stop putting on her costumes and attending my masques until his first birthday; when news reached us he had died your mother came to me to seek solace. She was so tired and angry that she said she was going to die but months after when I received a summons from your grandfather asking me for my help in a war against France her grief disappeared and instead she was campaigning with me enthusiastically around the country looking to garner support for our war."

"That didn't mean you had to cast her aside. She could've given you more children if you spent more time with her instead of your whores." Mary said bluntly. Her mother had endured her father's affairs quietly and now her father was blaming her for all her miscarriages?! "Why are you really telling me this father? Do you want me to hate my mother, is that it?"

"No. I want you to see her as she really was Mary, a woman with her faults who is the real villain here. She made me place you in Elizabeth's household, she brainwashed you against me."

"Unbelievable. You haven't changed. I held the faintest hope when you baptized my daughter with your name and Katherine's that you had but you are still the same man you were when I was born. Doesn't it ever burden your conscience?"

"Why should it? I am a king Mary, I do what I must for the good of the kingdom."

"The good of the kingdom! What about me, your daughter? You had your son, you had Edward, you could've let me married Philip…"

"Aye, I know that and I've remedied that."

"After I was already married! Why couldn't you let me go?"

"Because you defied me and I wasn't happy with whom you married."

"But I was happy. I had a family, a husband who loved me and you had just had another son. What am I going to tell my children when they grow up? I am sorry children but your mother is a whore who married two times and her marriage to Philip is not really a marriage, you have three other siblings across the chancel who are growing as princes, loved and coddled and who one will someday be king of France while you are bastards."

"Your marriage to Henry was wrong and I annulled it, your legitimate heir, my heir also rests in my arms and thank god he has my patience or otherwise he would be crying right now at his mother's cruel words."

Edmund looked from his grandfather to mother, smiling at both and giggling harder when he looked at his mother a second time.

Mary hated him. Please don't love me. It made her feel awful that she had these feelings, all the child wanted was to please her and make her proud and like her father she saw him as a tool, as another useless bastard.

His giggles were making go crazy. Please stop, I beg you. God help me. Sensing his mother's plight he stopped but continued smiling.

"He is not my son, English law might've overturned French law but it can't overturn the vows Henry and I exchanged. His children will always be legitimate and as long as I live I will fight for them."

"Careful Mary, don't you dare defy me. I forgave you once, I won't do it again."

"Then lock me up because I will continue to do so, and I will not rest until I return to France with my child, my trueborn heiress, Henri to be reunited with my husband and the future kings of France."

"And what then? France will not welcome you with open arms after they find out you opened your legs willingly to the first handsome men your father crossed in your path. Walls have ears and they report how you squealed like a French harlot when Philip rode you again and again."

Mary was unmoved by his snide remarks. "I don't care. They can say whatever they wish. I care nothing for you or what the rest of France or England says, I only care for my husband and my family and it was you who destroyed my reputation."

"Why were you so eager then to sleep with Philip? You weren't demanding me to see your daughter when you found yourself with child."

"I wanted to give him a son and I thought …" she paused, struggling with her words as she heard the child giggle again. Was he doing this on purpose or was she becoming mad? Whatever was happening, it was pushing her to the edge of reason and her father made it worse when he cast his eyes down and began rocking his grandchild and making funny faces at him so he would continue to giggle.

Like father like grandson. Just seeing her little son in her father's arms, how well they got along, convinced her he was not hers. Even if it came from her, it was not her son; he was entirely her father's.

"I thought it would give me access to my daughter."

"You clearly thought wrong, in any case one good thing came from it. You proved my doctors wrong and now thanks to you the Tudor dynasty can boast its horde of proud males, Jane's, Katherine's and now your son show the world that the Tudor dynasty will last here for a thousand years. Thank you Mary."

After he stopped playing games with Edmund, he set him on his knee, his arms still holding him, and the boy's eyes alert and looking at his surroundings constantly, intensely curious.

"You have had many opportunities to see your daughter, you've only visited her three times, the other times you claimed sickness."

"Because she was there."

"She is your stepmother and your siblings' mother and whether you like it or not your daughter's guardian."

Oh good –she wanted to say –She will grow a whore just like his kitten then.  
She could imagine her daughter growing up in that environment, entirely spoiled and arrogant, believing she could do whatever she wanted *with* whoever she wanted just because she had the looks, the clothes, and the money.

"She is my daughter. If you want to look after Edmund, you can take him and do with him as you wish, but I want my daughter, she is the only thing I have!"

Henry ignored her and looked down at Edmund who showed the sweetest smile yet at his grandfather.

"Please father, I beg you."

Henry looked up at his daughter. After a deafening silence he said "No."

It pierced Mary's heart.

She released her tears and opened her mouth but no sound came, there was only one silent plea through her eyes but it went ignored.

How could he do this? It was her son she cared. He had given her what he wanted, she'd broken her marriage vows just to get her daughter back.

"Father … she is my daughter …"

"You can't be around her." He said harshly, explaining her –"You've seen how she is around you since she was born, if it wasn't for the midwives trying to calm the poor girl down she would've cried herself to death. Katherine had to come in the birthing chamber before you dropped her when she tried to wriggle herself free of you."

"She is a baby, she doesn't know better, she will get used to me-"

"No. You've visited her three times not counting the times your husband and I were with you. She cries every time you pick her up Mary."

"But she bares Henry's mark, that moon shaped star on her thigh, she is all I have of him and she has my eyes and hair…" Her voice trailed off remembering when she was born. She was so heavenly, so beautiful … She cried when they placed her in her arms. She ignored what the rest of the midwives were saying, she just wanted to see her but when she began rocking her, asking her to be still so she could kiss her forehead the child began to cry more violently and it was not until she gave her to Elizabeth and Elizabeth in turn gave her to Katherine that she grew silent.

"I am her mother …" She kept saying, crying harder as she pictured her face from their last visit. Her father was there and so was Philip. Elizabeth was holding her and she gave her over to Mary but she began crying again and Mary nearly dropped her. Philip took her and gave her to her father who calmed her down.

And now here she was with a bastard son she didn't want and who loved her and made her feel all the worse for her feeling this way towards him.

Why can't you stop? She thought, screaming mentally but he only made it worse by clapping his chubby arms and laughing.

Henry, seeing his daughter was on the brink of a mental collapse nodded to her ladies to leave, except one. He took Edmund from his knee and pushing him closer to his chest, forming a shield around him with his arms.

Edmund saw this as a game and mistook his mother's sobs as laughter and imitated them laughing harder.

Mary gripped the arms of her chair.

She couldn't take it any longer. "Stop it!" She jumped from her chair and threw the goblet in her father's direction but she missed as Joan was by his side just in time, helping the king rise to his feet and move quickly dodging the throw.

Realizing his mother's screams were of desperation and not amusement, Edmund began to cry and Henry and Joan at once began to calm him.

Mary sank to her knees, hiding her face in her hands, tears streaming from her face.

"What a shame." She heard her father say "The king's daughter behaving no better than townsfolk. You were right, you obviously can't take care of your children so your husband and I shall determine who will take care of your son instead. You really disappoint me Mary, I hope your attitude improves with your next one."

There won't be a next one –she wanted to say and she realized she had because her father's cruel laughter was followed by "You will."

He turned on his heel and carrying his grandson and with her lady in waiting left his distraught daughter behind.

* * *

Mary did not sleep well that night. She and Philip had an angry argument after he told her he talked to the king of letting them keep their son longer.

"Why? He is going to be happier with father's little kitten, my daughter Henri certainly is."

"Your daughter is in her custody as a royal ward, Edmund is our son."

"He is your son. I didn't ask to carry him and I certainly didn't ask to be married to you."

"Funny," Philip said, his voice turning cold "I seem to recall my cousin telling my cousin telling me how you cried when she told you your father sent me away."

Lady Anne knew that? Her father's former wife was far more perceptive than she'd thought.

"Please Mary, just give us another chance. If not for me at least for our son. He deserves to grow in an environment were their parents don't fight all the time." Philip was rubbing his temples, he was asking for a miracle now but his wife remained undeterred and unshaken by his loss of temper and his pleas.

"I want my daughter back." Oh -Philip thought turning away, rolling his eyes. Not this again. "Yes, this again!" Mary said knowing what he was thinking. "I want my family back. My father took me away from everything I loved just so I could be married to you but the truth is, it's not working. I am not happy and you are clearly not happy so why don't break this sham of a marriage and we each go our separate way?"

"We can't. Your father bound us together and by an act of parliament he's further bound us."

"Then you can unbind us."

"I don't see how."

"Tell him the truth that we are not happy together, that our marriage is a mistake, something unholy-"

"I won't."

"Yes you will because if you don't then I will and I promise you Philip that no matter how many sons I am obliged to give you they will never have a mother, at least not in me."

Philip looked at her in disbelief. What had happened to her? She was not the sweet young woman he fell in love with. Her looks had not faced, they had enhanced with every aftermath of her pregnancies, but her mood swings her become more predominant and her behavior was more violent.

If he were to describe her in just two words he would chose: Cold Beauty. That's what she was now, a jewel from where light shone but which radiated no warmth.

"What happened to you? You used to love me."

"What happened to me? My husband was taken away from me and my sons are being raised by two women who hate me and who will mold them into the perfect little princes they want them to be and my daughter was taken by that bitch Katherine Howard and I can't see her because it turns out the man who is my husband, the man who always claimed to love me is too much of a coward to admit that his marriage this over. It was over before it begun." She added.

"I loved you." He defended.

"No you didn't, if you had you would've taken me with you."

"I couldn't, I told you why. My family wouldn't have approved and your father would've found us."

"You could've fought! You always had a choice, it was there right in front of you but you chose to seduce me with jewelry and empty promises. Henry showed me actions, he went into the battlefield unafraid, he fought my father when he told the guards to take me to the tower of London after he revealed our marriage. He was there with me after I gave birth to our firstborn, he was there for me when the king of France challenged his proposal to leave me as regent instead of his aunt Marguerite."

There she was Dauphine, a queen in waiting, here she was nothing, just another nobody.

"What did you do while you were gone? Manage a few parsecs of land, show off to the country? My Henry was there leading his troops, fighting, giving orders, riding into battle-"

"As a figurehead!" Philip shouted getting angry at Mary. "Your Henry was nothing more than a patsy, your father in law's lackey, an idiot. I did ride into battle. I saw the horrors of war and it's nothing like what your dear Henry saw."

Fighting was more than just giving fancy speeches and leading your men into battle while you ran away to dine in your fancy tent in plates of gold. He was not going to have her insult him and make him look like a coward.

"My husband did went into battle-"

Philip interrupted her violently and screamed in her face "One miserable little battle and he lost it!"

He was shaking madly and he walked away, staring at the full moon, resting his hands on the window sill. He took a deep breath and turned back to her. "That's why he left you regent because he knew the daughter of Catherine of Aragon and Henry VIII would do a more competent job inspiring his men than he did and you let him take the credit for it after you rode with your horse, both in armor telling the troops where to attack."

"He is my husband and it was my duty to make him look good."

"Then why can't you do the same for me? Our son cried his eyes out for you and you still refuse to see him."

"Because he isn't my responsibility. You and my father want me to be a doting mother but I can't be a doting mother to something I didn't want!"

"You don't mean that." He said walking to her again, his hands balled into fists. He saw her arrogant smirk and he lifted one of them to her face.

"I do." She said and walked past him, her smirk turning wider, and added snidely, "As long as you have me here Philip I will continue to show opposition but rest assured I will ease your troubles by giving you more bastards and I will do it gladly in the hopes I can use them to see my little girl."

Philip felt a huge knot in his chest. Unable to hit her he grabbed the table next to him and threw it across the room then stormed out cursing in his native tongue, leaving her feeling more miserable and lonely than she felt before.

That had been that. After Mary was dressed and put to bed she hid her head in the pillow, and cried herself to sleep. She wanted to tell Philip she was afraid for herself and her children and that a small part of him did love him but she didn't want to admit it to him because that would mean allowing herself to feel and she learned from both courts that feelings (especially love) were dangerous.

_Love no one but your children._ She said to herself as she went into a deep sleep. _Your true children._


	6. Chapter 6

_"For us climbing on the top there can be only one true: Hunt or be hunted." House of Cards  
_

_Mary" Mary saw her mother, she wore a black mantilla and black dress.  
"Mother."  
_

_"You disappoint me Mary. You said you'd love your sons and daughters but you hate your youngest and you have another on the way-"_

_"Mama you don't understand! Father wants me to commit sin with Philip, he wants me to have another man's children!"_

_"That's not what matters mi hija. You abandoned your own daughter, your hatred has blinded you to her. Now you are doing to the same to your son and he does love you-"_

_"But I don't love him! I want my husband! I want my husband!" She screamed sinking to her knees._

_Catherine knelt besides her putting her arms around her and pulling her to her. "You were my greatest joy, when you were born your father said we could have more, we were still young. His father said the same to Elizabeth and he said the same to Anne." She lifted her chin. "I wish you could see how much like your father you are. You both loved two people so much but you are only willing to admit one as your spouse."_

_"Because he is my rightful spouse and I'm nothing like him. I didn't repudiate Henry like father repudiated you."_

_"But you did repudiate Philip and the more he gives you children, the more you will hate them just because of their sex."_

_"Because father only cares for boys! I don't want boys, I want my daughter. I've had boys!" And they were a curse to her. Her father only wanted her for the value of her womb and to produce boys more than any other Tudor woman since her grandmother, Elizabeth of York. _

_"Mary ..." Catherine started, her eyes watering, tears reaching down her cheeks to her neck to her breast, and as Mary buried her face in her breast one fell on her. "... I lost my first boy, a beautiful boy who I would have given everything to have back but then you were born and I thanked the heavens everyday for it. I would not have traded you for everything. You were my only pride and joy and it tears me to see you like this."_

_"Mama ..."_

_She began fading._

_"You are no longer my little girl_ anymore."

_"Mama no! ... Please come back!"_

Mary woke from her dream and found herself back in her room next to her sleeping husband.

Edmund was crying again. Surely that's what made her dream.

It had been two bad years for Mary. Her father had enjoyed good health as Katherine birthed another boy and while he died a month after his Christening, he was overjoyed because it proved that he could still sire children. After that dead sibling of hers though, they stopped.

Mary went to check on him. Her real husband had been locked up in his favorite Chateau and had been for house arrest ever since. Chapuys who chose to stay (for what reason? She did not know) told her he was ailing and after the treaty of Soisons with the emperor her father in law had taken him from the law of succession bypassing him in favor of their sons and Charles.

If he died Edmund would be king of France and her marriage to Philip would be validated under the eyes of everyone. Papal bulls could be bought and Rome was so corrupt that gold from her father's chest and her cousin's could absolve her children by Philip from the taint of bastardry.

It would still not absolve them from her though.

Edmund was crying in his bed-crib. His father had put railings so he would not fall and Edmund hated it because he boasted better health than every other Tudor male and at two years and a half he was robust with broad shoulders and pink cheeks.

"What's wrong?"

Edmund looked up at his mother. No other two year old was deemed as perceptive as him, he often reminded his family of his aunt Bessie when he was her age.

"Grandfather sent me a sword to play with cousin Charles and cousin Jane Grey but Henri came and broke it."

Mary rolled her eyes. This again. He was inventing lies so he could endear himself to her. Well, that wasn't going to happen.

"You shouldn't lie Edmund, the good lord punishes the liars."

"But I'm not lying mother, ask everyone. They will tell you. Henri spends her time tormenting everyone, especially cousin Jane."

She didn't believe him. Henri was a sweet girl who only acted the way she did at times because she was being raised by that brainless kitten, Katherine Howard. In any case, even if she had done something to mousy Jane and her half brother, it was surely their fault. They must've said something to upset her.

"Will you tell her not to do it anymore mother, please?"

"I can't Edmund-"

"No Edmund I won't. You understand? Your half sibling did nothing wrong and I won't have you and your cousins saying bad things about her anymore."

"But mother-"

"No buts now go to bed."

Edmund lay his head down on his pillow but as his mother turned on her heel he called her out "Lady mother!"

Mary turned.

"Can you read to me?"

Mary pressed both lips together, gritting her teeth from the inside. "What do you wish me to read?" Probably one of those fairy tale stories that made children more stupid. Her father's wife read those to her daughter and her children. It was no wonder Henri acted the way she acted. Poor darling, being a bastard in her grandfather's house and raised by that stupid kitten, it was no wonder she felt threatened by her cousins and Edmund. He must have surely reminded her of her birth, taunted her that she was a bastard and little mousy Jane Grey making fun of her mother because she had ran away with a Catholic prince ...

She broke her chain of thought as she read Edmund sit up, waiting eagerly for her to read.

"I don't want that. It's stupid."

Mary's eyebrows rose in surprise.

"What do you want to read then?"

"Mary."

They both turned to find Philip at the door way. He was waken by the hushed voices next door. He would have a word with the governess. She was supposed to put Edmund to bed but lady Bryan it seemed was more committed to the king's children and granddaughter.

"Go to bed Edmund, your mother is very tired."

Mary was grateful but Edmund grabbed his mother's hand and pulled her down. "No, I want her here with me. Mama read this book to me, it's my favorite."

He took a book from underneath his pillow. Mary was surprised when she saw it. It was the history of England, Chaucer's tales, the death of King Arthur, and the last to her great distaste Lutheran writings, all in one large tome.

"She is going to see the queen your grandmother and grandfather the king tomorrow Edmund and she needs her sleep for the baby."

"I don't want her to stay long. Just to read this to me. You can stay too."

Philip looked to Mary. She bore no objection. "All right, which do you want to read first?"

"Chaucer, his tale of the women remind me of Norse sagas. I love the pagan myths father."

"Yes, I love them too son." Philip said, sharing his love for his old ancestors and their religion. Someday, he thought, my son will make a fine strapping youth and he can return the pride of his ancestors to our people but that day was long and probably would never be. In any case, it was better that he survived first by playing the fool just as Philip had learned. Sometimes it was better.

His brother Otto had told him 'politics is not about defiance, it's about survival'.

He wished Mary could understand that.

Mary gave him a mild smile remembering her own childhood when Salisbury, lady Bryan and her mother read this to her.

They spent all night reading, Edmund would ask them to re-read the stories again and sometimes he would show off to them reading passages of them in Latin which he spoke flawlessly.

He missed the hatred shone in her eyes. It melted away by the time they were done. They didn't realize it was sunrise until the house became noisy with the busy activities of their servants downstairs cleaning the different solars, studies and other rooms.

Mary wondered: was her mother right?

Could she love this boy? Even if he wasn't her husband's son? He was smart, strapping. He would be handsome like his grandfather when he grew up and he took a lot after her and his older sibling, Francis ...

He is probably in his aunt's rooms by now playing with his twin and his grandfather's mistress is teaching him new languages. She had hated Anne de Pisseleu for being a heretic and a whore but since she'd come back to England she learned to see the woman and her faith in a new light as well as hers.

Not that she didn't believe, she still did but not any church, establishment or priest. They were all corrupt and if god really existed she doubted he was in a church or book that men wrote.

She picked Edmund up and tucked him in then told lady Bryan who just came up to check on her charge to take the day off, she and Philip could look after her own.

* * *

On his fifty seventh birthday, Mary gave birth to her second son. They named him Arthur Henry. A name he didn't chose but his son in law stood by Mary this time, showing the first sign of defiance to his father in law. Henry dropped the matter after Katherine convinced him it was not worth it.

His second trueborn grandson was nothing like his first, he took more after his father and his Wittelsbach relations. Mary refused to hold him, but she was not as hostile towards him as she had been to Edmund when he was born.

He turned to his granddaughter, Henrietta, called Henri by her loved ones. She was playing tag with his two eldest sons. She enjoyed Charlie's presence more than Edward. They were closer in age and Harry was more cheerful where Edward was serious and always more zealous in matters of law and theology that it sometimes worried Henry what kind of monarch he would turn into, but he had never been close to his firstborn, visiting him only when he was sick or he needed to as his memory of his sweet Jane was still too fresh in his mind.

"What are you two playing? Not tormenting your poor cousin Henri are you?"

"No papa. We were teaching Henri how to dance. Edward is the better dancer of us,"

Edward smiled humbly then turned serious bearing a regal stance, more regal than his younger sibling, telling their father he was.

"And you my lady? Who of your two cousins you prefer? Let her be the judge."

Henrietta looked to both boys. Charlie she was closer to in age but Edward was the firstborn. Yet there was something about him, his seriousness that didn't click with her. She preferred Charlie's outgoing behavior anyway.

She turned to her grandfather. "Whichever you pick grandpapa."

"Wise answer." Henry kissed his granddaughter and let her run along.

* * *

Katherine spent the day dancing and hosting parties in her chambers with her ladies and her favorite courtiers' children. The men that had known her had stopped their blackmailing. The queen was in a powerful position and even when she had one miscarriage the fact she had given the king two children made her the most powerful woman in England.

Yet there would always be those who went after her. She needed to keep her eyes open and alert.

She brushed her uncle's words aside. She was queen wasn't she? Her uncle worried too much, she had everything under control.

Henri came holding hands with her son. Katherine kissed him goodbye. He was infatuated with his niece, as all young boys.

"Here she comes ladies, the girl of the hour." Her women fawned over her, including the king's sister, Lady Anne of Cleves.

"Since when did you grow your hair Henri, it's so beautiful?" Anne said who hadn't seen the girl in a year. She was very tall, she guessed she got that from her father's side of the family.

"It's always been like that Anne." Elizabeth said pulling her niece to her. "You should wear your hair down more often Henri, it goes with your dress."

Henri blushed. "Thank you lady aunt."

"Call me Bessie. Lady aunt sounds too old."

Henri nodded and Katherine picked her up. She was very tall but light as a feather, if it weren't for her strawberry blond hair the two could've been mistaken as mother and daughter.

"Your grandpapa tells me you took Edmund's sword and Jane's sketch book."

Henri blushed but she didn't hid her head. Her step-grandmama always told her 'hold your head high. Don't be afraid of saying the truth'.

"Why would you do that?"

Katherine put her down.

"They didn't want me to play with them."

"Why not?"

She sat her next to her, getting comfortable in the soft cushions.

She shrugged. "I don't know." She said. "They just didn't want to play and when they let Jane play instead I got mad."

Katherine sensed there was something her step-granddaughter wasn't telling her. She knew the girl better than her own mother did and she always knew when something was troubling her.

She searched the girl's eyes and found what she was looking for. "They said something mean."

It wasn't a question.

She nodded. She didn't have to ask what, it came right out of Henri's lips. "They called me the queen's pet."

Her ladies said nothing, they had a good idea where they got that idea from.

Mary -Katherine thought. Her stepdaughter always thought of her the worst. Never mind that she had given a safe haven to her daughter and raised her as her own, (she was likely to have anymore children so Henri was the closest thing she had to a daughter) and the girl was so well behaved. She was nothing like her mother.

"The queen's kitten to be more specific." Henri continued. "Jane tried to take the sword from me when I took it and that's when I took her book and threw it at her."

Katherine mentally laughed. Every woman said the king's grand-niece was so pious, so well behaved and illustrious -even Elizabeth admired her -but Katherine saw through the girl. Like Mary she thought of herself *too* important for the likes of them and did nothing but preached the word of the *true* gospel. For years she and her uncle had been working hard to push her parents and grandfather Charles Brandon from convincing him to marry Edward to that girl.

She shuddered what would England become under that girl. Her stepson was quiet, smart, and kept much to himself, but when he was with Kitty he was always ready to smile. With Jane he would become more dogmatic, perhaps even cruel like his Catholic counterparts to impose his truth on the population.

"It was wrong of them to say that Henri but Jane is your cousin and you can't take it out on her, she is very little." Elizabeth said.

"But I am little too and I never say things like that to them." Henri said calmly.

"Nevertheless you must show more decorum." She looked to her stepmother for support.

"She is right." she said. "If you start throwing books at Jane she will run back to her mother and she to her father and her father is your grandfather's best friend. They are likely to believe her."

"But what am I supposed to say? Edmund says nothing to defend me and after Jane says what she wants she starts preaching the gospel of the "true" faith every two seconds like some pastor parrot."

"Henri!"

"It's true Bessie. She is more worried about saving souls than people's feelings."

She didn't like her cousin Jane. Underneath that sweetness was a fervent religious nun -Or would be nun if she was Catholic. Her mother didn't care much for religion anymore but she staunchly adhered to those old precepts of the Catholic church. Jane meanwhile, saw the truth behind that old church -that it was filled with decadence and idol worship. But she wasn't any better being self righteous and making people feel like idiots when they didn't agree with her.  
Last week she said to Henri when she caught her reading old Norse myths from the books Katherine and Bessie gave her that they were "heathen books" and she was naive to believe if they were all real.

Henri's response was _"What's more idiotic believe in fairies and women who wielded a sword and were not afraid to drink, burp and gorge on good foods and fight alongside skilled warriors or your god that does nothing but judge and kill firstborns for the sins of their fathers."_

Needless to say, Jane said that was blasphemous and went on to quote the _good word_ from our lord Jesus Christ how His word was true and His word was mankind's only salvation.

Henri pitied Jane. Women like her were so smart but so restrained by religion and their beliefs.

"Regardless, you must show yourself to be the better person otherwise she will do as Kitty just said and you will be the one with the blame."

Henri nodded. She did not agree but she took their advice.

"Now that's cleared out of the way let's have some food brought here shall we? Lady Anne, my ladies and I made cakes for everybody and you" she poked her nose earning a large smile from her. "get the biggest slice."

Katherine took Henri's hand and led her to her larger chamber where cakes, honey, fruit and other sorts of food were laid out for them.

* * *

Mary entered the room. She was so silent nobody heard her. She heard what Henri had said. So she had been right all along. It was Edmund's fault. Even if he did not say those words, it was his fault for not defending her. As her brother it was his duty to protect her.

She wanted to hug her and shower her with kisses, telling her that she didn't have to worry for that mousy girl's words and that she would take care of Jane next time she said something like her but her sister and the queen gotten to her first and when they went to the queen's bedchamber what she saw broke her heart in two.

Katherine hugged her and took her pearl necklace to put it on her. Bessie and everyone fawned over her, remarking how good she look and applauding both of them as if they were mother and daughter.

_Love no one but your children._

But what if your children don't love you? What then?

She turned on her wheel and walked away.

In their bedchamber was Philip and Edmund playing with her son Arthur. Her youngest son was easier getting used to than his brother. He was not needy and never bothered her.

As she went to a separate chamber and sat down on the couch, she closed her eyes and fell asleep. Regardless if her mother's ghost visited her, she would not stay idle anymore. She had been dormant for the past seven years since she married Henry, not anymore. She would resume her struggle for the English throne. And she would win at all costs.


	7. Chapter 7

_"I see this life like a swinging burn  
Swinging my heart across the line_  
_In face there is flashing sign: seek and ye shall find  
Old but I'm not that old  
Young but I'm not that bold...  
__I've been losing sleep dreaming of what we could be...  
_I feel your love and I feel it burn." -Counting Stars by One Republic

Mary took the news hard. She didn't want a betrothal.

Her daughter knelt before the Cleves ambassador and the Duchess Dowager. Anne was with them and had introduced the former princess' only daughter to her mother. They inspected her as if she was a horse at an auction.

"The papers have been drawn up." Philip said when she voiced her opposition.

"But surely you can do something. They are your family, you can convince Anne to convince her mother not to marry Henri. She is only seven."

"The wedding will not be until she is older."

"Yes and the groom will be much older."

"He is not that old, my nephew is only two years her senior and my cousin promises not to have the marriage consummated until she is of age."

"And what age is that? Twelve and he fourteen?" She chuckled coldly. "He will bed her and squirt his baby in her and then be done with her when she can't bear any children."

"My nephew is not like that. He is a sweet boy who passes his time studying and composing songs and besides his mother is a kind woman who will make sure no harm comes to your daughter."

"You refer her as your own but now that she is betrothed to your nephew you no longer care for her."

"I do care for her but I must be realistic. Your daughter is the king's granddaughter and whether you like it or not that entails a great responsibility to your father and the realm." He sat next to her and put his hand on top of her. "Alliances can shift, who knows what the future will bring. He may say no tomorrow."

"And what will that gain? Another match and another and another until my daughter is either an old maid or married to some far off prince and I never hear from her again." She got her hand from under his. "It's not fair."

"I know."

"No, you don't. Your sons will likely live here with you the rest of their lives or Bavaria but they will always be present, my daughter doesn't have that chance. So don't tell me you know or understand my pain because you don't and you never will."

And she was glad he didn't because if they had a daughter it would have only supplanted Henri in her heart. She couldn't fathom anyone being more beautiful and more loved than her daughter. Even when she repudiated her, Mary still loved her.

A girl with black hair, blue-green eyes, and ivory skin would only take away her daughter's rightful position.

Philip saw a single tear fall from her left eye. He pushed his chair closer to her but Mary turned her face away.

"You are right I don't but I want to and I know I can if you let me. If you tell me what is it that you fear so much," He said. "Henrietta is –was- a princess –"he rephrased "and if she remained in France she would've made a similar match and you would've had to accept it too because as the dauphin's only daughter her importance would've been much greater. Your father is giving her the chance to be something greater. Here she will always be talked about negatively but out there in my cousin's court she will be the future Duchess, wife of a ruling Duke. Isn't that what you want? For her to have a better future?"

Not like this.

She remained silent. Philip sighed. He rose, leaned forward and kissed the top of her head, "I will see you after the hunt." He said and left.

Mary turned to her ladies, one of them her ward, came forward.

"Yes Madame?"

"Fetch me Mistress Constance."

"Yes Madame."

"And Jane … tell her give me a stronger dose."

Jane nodded and left. She and her other lady were left alone.

She reclined in her cushioned seat and turned her eyes to the window where she saw Philip and the rest of his hunting party ride off into the wild with her father, the Earl of Hertford, his brothers Sir Thomas and Sir Henry, and the queen's uncle and older brothers.

She gripped the handles of her chair with impatience. The head midwife came at once and saluted the duchess-

Mary raised her hand for her to stop and ordered her to sit next to her then dismissed both of her ladies and told them to wait for her in the solar.

"Did you bring it?" The midwife nodded and took a vial and poured everything into her wine goblet.

"Before you drink it Madame, you need to know the damage it could cause could be permanent." She informed her.

Mary didn't care, she asked: "How long before it takes effect?"

"Right away."

"Good." Mary said and pushed her cup away.

"Madame?" The midwife asked bewildered.

"I didn't call you just for your expertise Constance, if I only wanted to get rid of my little problem I would've done so without calling you here."

She got closer to the woman. "I need you because I need someone I can trust with my other problem."

"What other problem?"

Mary grinned. "How are your children Constance?"

"Fine my lady, my son is very thankful to you for sponsoring him. He would've never gotten this far without your support."

"And your daughter?"

"She is still young but hopeful."

Mary could imagine. Hopeful to get her support so she could make a fine match for her with one of her father's highest pages or lowly knights.

"Sir Thomas Seymour has a daughter, an heiress in her own right thanks to both her parents. Should anything happen to her parents she stands to inherit everything."

"Under English law but what about Welsh law my lady?" Constance's husband had been Welsh and as a result her children were proud Welsh who rejected any English match, but a week in Mary's household with riches and everything they could have ever imagined, changed their minds.

Mary's smile turned wider. "Wales is part of my father's kingdom as is every Isle." And soon Scotland will be too, was left unsaid. With her father mobilizing troops under the command of the Earl of Hertford and Viscount Lisle, it would only be a matter of time before the queen Dowager was captured and brought to England as a prisoner of war and Mary Stuart was forced to come back to her ailing mother's aid.

"Should your son take Mary Seymour as his bride, who knows, with some properties in Wales, it would double your son's reputation and he can look to a more lucrative career in my nephew's regime?"

"But that could take years."

"Good things come to those who wait." Mary responded. Something in the woman's smile made Constance suspicious. "Many in England wish for my brother to be the next king of England, do not cross yourself Constance, people talk, that can't be avoided."

"There are men who lurk behind the walls my lady and with all due respect many in my condition have gone to the scaffold for less, if they find what we have talked or what I've given you-"

"They won't." Mary said cuttingly. "I am offering you the deal of the lifetime Constance. Your husband used to be somebody in Wales, he knew many of the tenants of the other important lords, imagine your son married to Mary Seymour, it is more than you will ever get from my family." From me –were her words' true meaning.

Constance shifted uncomfortably in her chair. Mary calmed her. "The future belongs to my brother and those after him, you better know whose side you are on when the time comes because this is a one-time offer and there is also another reason why I need you."

Mary whispered in her ear then returned to her chair.

"My lady-"

"Do not give me any excuses Constance. You told me once you knew of ways to end the pain, what is a greater mercy than ending these men's pains? As head midwife many go to you, you will supply the apothecarian with the necessary dosages and after you do, you shall report back to me."

"I can't…"

"Yes you can. What do you want, to spend the rest of your life attending wretched women like me and the queen or be at the top of the new gentry?" She rose again and called to her ladies to open the doors.

She showed Constance out but before the women stepped out of her chambers she turned and said to Mary: "What you are asking me is murder."

"No." Mary said primly, convincing herself inside that it wasn't as well. "It's politics. Do it or I will find someone else." She said then shut the door.

Regardless of what she said or did, nobody would believe her and the pieces were already turned in her favor. The die had been cast and she just needed one more piece to move before she took the last one out.

* * *

Philip got lost in the hunting party. They had been taken by surprise due to the weather and something deep in the woods had spooked the horses. He remained in his looking everywhere for help. He needed to get back to the castle before sun-down. He didn't want anyone worrying but most of all he didn't want whatever had attacked them come her way. If he lost Mary he didn't know what he'd do.

He would go crazy or die with grief. He had lost her once, he wouldn't lose her again.

The king and the rest of the hunting party –what remained of it- were stranded. They had helped him on his feet again, their horses however were taken. When they finally caught up with them a group of brigands came and took them, they left the king and the rest of them alone but for what? They would die in this weather, in this rain, this cold and with all the bugs and whatever was out there –if it still was –which was more likely.

Edward Seymour asked his brother Thomas if he took a good look to the bandits, Thomas shook his head but their brother Harry said he did. "They wore His Majesty's livery."

"Not so loud Harry." Thomas warned him as he took out his sword at the same time their older brother did. They thought they heard a sound deep in the woods but it was nothing. Thomas and Edward however took no chances, their swords remained firmly grasped.

"I told you what I saw, I was just voicing my opinion."

"We can't have a panic amongst our group, if it comes out there will be suspicion everywhere." Edward explained to their younger brother.

"Who do you think sent them?" Harry asked more quietly now.

"I don't know." Edward said honestly.

"It could be a number of people." He went on, his mind searching for every enemy, every wayward ally who might have a cause of resentment with them, the duke, the king, or all of them.

"It must've been the queen." Harry said.

"Don't be ludicrous, she doesn't have that power." Edward told him, but Thomas agreed with him.

"She has fallen out of favor with her uncle and she and the king have had problems as of late."

"Even so Thomas it would not be enough cause to order her husband's death, especially when we are all here."

"It makes perfect sense Edward. With us gone she gets to take care of the regency, our nephew Edward is in her hands with no Seymour men or uncle Norfolk to oppose her. She can do whatever she wants afterward and put her own son ahead of him." Thomas was never close to his nephew Edward emotionally as he would've liked, as he had been with his mother but he was of his blood and he'd be damned if he let someone like her touch one hair of that boy's head.

Edward chuckled. Both his brothers were political idiots.

"You know I'm right. Kings have gone down for less, a cold, the plague, she can invent anything and then put her son on the throne."

"I am not laughing because I think you are an idiot, I am laughing because I think you are taking far too much license. This is the queen of England Thomas, she is not the smartest pebble and even if she was the mastermind behind this plot what would she gain? Her family is mainly Catholic and all her allegiance would be from old men who can barely stand her and consider her a traitor to her religion, our party would eat her in a second not to mention that Edward is a smart boy, he would not hesitate to tear her to pieces as he's done with all his beasts."

Edward was a smart boy, and far wiser beyond his years. He had the Tudor cruel streak in him. He had seen how he had torn down his bird to pieces when he grew frustrated over his nephews Edmund and Arthur not wanting to play with him and his cousin Jane preferring their company and his brothers' as well, over his. He had kept much of this secret but the most vivid image he remembered was when he and Thomas visited him and he dissected a cat. "Punishment" he called it, for purring over his brothers' legs instead of his.

If Katherine or anyone thought they could control that boy, they were sorely mistaken. Edward was a manipulator like him and like his father a good masker.

"Then who?" Harry asked, rather timidly. He was trembling. Edward and Thomas put their coats on him. It was a mistake to bring him with them. He would only delay him but Henry was the only Seymour brother that remained and as such they didn't want him to be excluded.

"I don't know." Edward said, feeling frustrated for the first time. His lips prim, his eyes hard, he kicked the leaves and beat his fist against the tree his brother was leaning on.

Whoever this was, he promised if they survived would pay dearly. Thomas made the same promise, although his mind was already made up –for him it was the queen. Who else would have reason to send them to their early graves?

* * *

Henri played with Mary Seymour. Kathryn Parr was her new governess and while she and the queen didn't get along, Henri and her aunt Bess liked her and they would spend hours with her and her daughter. Kathryn had been given free permission by her aunt and her stepfather to teach her everything, everything her mother did and not approved because they wanted her to be prepared for when she was older and left to marry the future Duke of Cleves.

Mary Seymour looked out the window. The sun had not yet gone down but it was barely visible with all the clouds above the sky and intense rain. "I hope papa and the others are okay."

"I hope so too." Henri said, sharing her worries. Her grandfather promised her the head of the stag as a reward, he promised one to her aunt as well who loved hunting too but was not an expert huntress as her mother.

She had visited her mother earlier, asking her why she didn't go, but her mother offered her no clear answer. As usual she spoke in riddles. She wished her mother would be like other mums, like Mary Seymour's mum so she could relate to her more. Her younger siblings loved her and she them, but it was very rare when she did open to them. She had heard her talk with her newest lady and ward, Jane Dorner, that it was because Henri didn't love her. This wasn't true. Henri did love her mother but … she didn't know how to explain it … she just didn't feel that connection with her. With Kitty, it was always there, but with her mother it was different.

She did try to approach her at times but her mother was always sad when she saw her and sometimes she started talking of her father, her real father who had died while imprisoned and her brothers the King of France and Duke of Orleans and how magnificently they lived and reigned and how she wished she could've been there for them instead of having them being raised by vipers like their aunt and late grandfather's mistress. _"They turned them against me." _She would say then add_ "If you were there you would be a Princess and respected."_

She didn't understand her mother when she talked about this. The past was the past and she wasn't stupid, she knew she could've had it all over there. But she was happy here with people that loved her and didn't befriend her just because of her status. At times when people would whisper the word "bastard" she would just turn a blind eye and laugh at them or return the barb, other times if the queen caught those responsible, she would see to their punishment with her grandfather.  
And while it did have its perks being a bastard, she had more liberties than restrictions.

She took down Mary's castle and started another one, Mary put the final block on top and began playing with their dolls, pretending she was the princess in need and Henri took on the double role of the evil sorceress and good wizard who fought to free to princess.

* * *

In the court of France, the vipers nest had shrunk considerably but it was by no means less lethal.

Francois II viewed all of his subjects with suspicion. He was cautious over the men he chose to sit at his council and whom he selected as part of his royal guard. His aunt Marguerite acted as his regent and so did his uncle Charles who had accepted the demotion from Duke of Orleans to Duke of Angouleme.

The loyalty he lacked for his brother was given to his son. Francois, he felt, was a king everyone could rely on. A boy who wasn't controlled and manipulated by those around him, especially his women.

Charles had his share of women but they were just that, women to him and nothing more. Henry however always felt he owed them something, he let Diane turn him into a staunch fanatic, he let Catherine into his politics, and he nearly plunged his country into chaos when he wedded his nephew's mother.

He was glad his brother was dead. Make no mistake, anyone who accused him of being a cold-hearted bastard did not know Charles personally. He loved his brother and always would but his brother was a love sick and naïve fool who would've bankrupted France if he had the chance. His father only tolerated him because he was his heir but once he was out of the way, he moved his nephew to that position.

"What is the news from England?" Francois asked.

"Henry VIII still raids the Scottish borders, we are forced to send more aid."

"How many soldiers does the queen regent ask for this time?"

"Twelve thousand."

Francois laughed, his aunt followed. "She is out of her mind, but she is our ally. Write to her that we will supply her with a smaller force."

"She will not accept."

Anne de Piseleu said. Charles nodded.

"She will have to. We have her daughter with us and it's costing us already to support her every needs. Our troops will not be lost in a war we cannot win and let's face it, it's not in our best interests to engage in a war with England at the moment. Uncle, see to it that she gets the message."

"I shall send my best man." He promised.

"Good, let us close this meeting then and return to the festivities, I believe dear aunt you have your daughter preparing a show for us."

"Yes, Your Majesty, she is going to be dancing in the play we prepared for you, she is going on as Artemis."

"The huntress. I could expect no less, it is good to know we still have strong women in our family."


	8. Chapter 8

_"You told me yes. You held me high_

_and I believe when you told that lie_

_I played soldier, you played King_

_Struck me down when I kissed that ring_

_You lost that right to hold that crown_

_I build you up, but you let me down_

_So when you fall I take my turn  
In the flames as your places burn" -Burn it Down by Linkin Park_

"We're building it up to break it back down" Mary said as she heard the horses came back. She snapped her head back and saw they had no riders.

She had been there waiting all night like a dutiful wife.

"Where is the King?" The castle had been fretting since the sun set and no news of her father and the rest of his hunting party. Kitty was besides herself with worry, she knew if her husband died her stepson would succeed and as much as he claimed to love her, he loved power more. He was a Tudor and his first priority would be to eradicate his father's court from sin and that included music, and everything Reformists saw as sinful.

Elizabeth brought her oldest and youngest. Henri was holding Mary Seymour's hand. At only five, the girl was very perceptive and she already knew something was wrong and her father was likely not coming back.

"I will wait here with you." Elizabeth said standing next to her. Mary nodded and said "Thank you." She tried taking her daughter's hand but Henri moved away behind her aunt's skirts.

An hour later another horse came. Mary cursed underneath her breath.

Cheers and joys were heard as the horse approached. It was their king and behind them was another horse with the three Seymour brothers. But their cheers died down when the king fell and they realized he was already dying.

Edward, Thomas, and Henry Seymour dismounted and began to talk rapidly, Edward the eldest and strongest of the lot was calmer and gave everyone directions as if he was Protector already, to take the king to his chambers and send for the physicians and Cranmer to hear his last confession.

"Father isn't dead and they are already making plans."

"Of course they are, they will take the country for themselves and tear our brother to pieces. I've been saying that all year." Mary whispered in her sister's ear.

For once Bess agreed. "Come Henri, Arthur you take Mary." The younger boy nodded and took Mary to her father who hugged her tightly. It didn't bother her that he stank of death or that he stained her dress with the mud and blood of his clothes. What mattered was that he was safe.

Mary narrowed her eyes. "Arthur." Arthur came back to her side. He didn't say or did much unless she approved and for that she was grateful.

Her older son came running, impatient as always she joined them. "Where is father? People are saying grandfather could die. Is that true?"

"Shh, Edmund not so loud." Mary quietly admonished. "And yes grandfather is ill but you shouldn't believe what the doctors say, he has been dying for seven years since your sister was born, he may yet live."

He didn't believe it. Neither did his aunt who looked at him and shook her head.

"We should be getting inside."

"No, you get inside, I will stay."

"Are you sure?" Mary nodded.

Elizabeth and the rest of the party left and the commotion soon died out. Mary waited with her arms crossed for any sign of Philip. She wasn't born to be cruel, she didn't want any of this to happen. But it's for your children -a voice in her head said.

They had forced her hand when they took her happiness away, now this is what they had to contend. She felt the usual pain in her mid-section.

Three years since her first miscarriage, three years since they'd tried having more children. Three years since she started taking Constance's potions and herbal teas to abort.

Two sons were more than her father and Philip deserved. She had done her duty providing the Tudor dynasty with males, she did not need to do more. She was not some brood mare.

She expected this child would go away just like the rest. She clutched her stomach tighter, it clung on to her like a leech.

Please. -She begged -Go away.

* * *

Philip spit blood. A beast. A lioness, that's what had terrorized them.

He laughed at the irony. When he stabbed the beast after it slashed his neck with his claws, he recognized it for the 'L' shaped scar on her forehead. It was Mary's beast, the wedding present her stepmother had given to her after the wedding.

How it got out of the royal menagerie, God only knew. But he had a good idea who helped.

"Damn you Mary." He laughed louder. If he was told it would be his wife who killed him he would've stabbed that person and cut his tongue for saying such things. She is my death -wasn't that what Anne Boleyn said?

You are going to die here Philip. Not in a battlefield but in a muddy ground thanks to your wife's kitten. He could appreciate the irony more as blood gushed from his wounds.

"It hurts no more." He said, clutching his vest. He imagined Mary standing by his side as he gave her the ring and made his promise to wed her. That spring of 1540 when they had been so young and so hopeful ...It seemed so long ago. In the greenlands that his ancestors believed -there would be no sorrow, no pain. He closed his eyes and clutched his sword, if he was going to die, he was going to die as the moniker he was known for "the Warrior".

* * *

As the Duke gave his last breath, the king struggled to sign his will. On the verge of death had given him perspective. He didn't want his son to be at the mercy of greedy councilors and family men like his uncle, one of the lost princes, had been.

Signing Henry the King, Henry VIII dropped his pen and passed away.

Outside the streets of London the bells were rung. Their King was dead. Long Live their New King.


	9. Chapter 9

"_I've seen a rich man beg_

_I've seen a good man sin_

_I've seen a good man cry_

_I've seen a loser win  
and a sad man grin_

_I've heard and honest man lie_

_I've seen the good side of bad_

_And the downside of up_

_And everything between_

_I lick the silver spoon, drink from the silver cup_

_Smoke the finest green_

_You know where it is, though it usually depends on where you start." –What it's like by Everlast_

I've seen aEdward's coronation was planned right away. He passed through the famous streets his father and others before him passed. 'It should be me' –she muttered to herself as they made their way to the Abbey.

The archbishop placed the crown on his head along with the oils on his breast and forehead. Afterwards, they joined him in the feast at Placentia. Mary was seated in the table on the dais along with other members of his family.

He didn't like that his nephew had placed his sister so close to him but he saw the benefit of such alliance. Thomas didn't mind sitting next to the king's sisters. The Seymours were placed far higher than any other family. It didn't matter if they had to share their possition with others. As long as their nephew reigned, so did they.

The safest thing for Edward now was to marry and let them rule for him until he reaches the age of majority. If he does, Edward Seymour thought. There were many ways to rule a king and prevent the age of majority from being reached. Richad II had reached the age of majority and before long he proved to be a poor ruler and left all power in his tutors' care and when they were no longer useful, John of Gaunt.

Edward Seymour did not envision himself a kingmaker like the earl fo Wariwck or the father of a future king like John of Gaunt, but he was an ambitious man and a survivor and he wanted his legacy to last for a thousand years, for people to remember his name, not be just another footnote.

Mary tried to speak to her daughter the weekend following the coronation. She spent a lot of time with Katherine Howard's children and while Mary enjoyed the attentions the pretentious queen dowager bestowed on her daughter, she didn't want her to get to close to her children. If she formed an attachment with them, it would be hard to get her away from them when the time came for her to marry a foreign prince (if that was still on the royal agenda).

Mary hoped not. She wanted all her children –here with her. They were her soul, her spirit. And except for Edmund who was nothing but needy, Arthur learned to obey and Henri … Henri was the only thing that remained of her true love.

* * *

"Has the queen agreed to a peace with England?" Francois II thought aloud, asking his ministers.

They all shook their heads. "No, Your Majesty. The queen regent still thinks you should go ahead and marry her daughter as promised-"

"I have promised her to marry her to one of my royal blood, I cannot marry her myself I've already explained, unless I get England and Spain on my back."

"We know Your Majesty but the queen regent is very insistent."

"Then send her another reply and tell her that the king of France does not and wll not stand for subtle threats."

"Your Majesty, nephew if I may." The king nodded to him.

Charles proposed another solution. "The queen dowager of England is not a regent, she is not interested in ruling and she does whatever her uncle or the king, her stepson, tells her to do. Clearly she'd be far more amiable in negotiating an alliance with you than Scotland."

"But the Scottish are our allies!" One of the council protested.

"Silence." The king roared. "My uncle is right. We can't have Scotland bully us and the ties that bind us have long been overdue, we've done all we can to help them and so far it's gotten us nothing but more expensive wars. If that's the way the queen regent and her bishops want to roll with us, then we will look to another country for an alliance. Uncle, send word to the king's regency council, we don't want to get ahead of ourselves before we know what their mind is on this."

"Yes, nephew."

After the council was dismissed, Charles remained. "You are thinking of your mother."

He nodded. He knew something was wrong. Normally his nephew was very resolute, very straight to the point and capable of making his own decisions without needing him to jump ship.

"She is the mother of my siblings and I can't help but miss her. I dream about her sometimes but all I see when the dream ends are nightmares replaced by my father's obstiancy and his near-madness."

He remembered when he accidentally helped his father escape. He and his twin were always sneaky and they thought on playing a prank on the drunken guard who was bedding one of their grand-aunt's chambermaids. They believed their father wanted to get out only to play with them, but soon as he was out he kissed their foreheads and ran away. It took their grandfather the greater part of four years to track him down but he finally did and he and Henry like two budding crones sent their cronies to do their dirty work.

The official story was he died in prison, chosing to starve instead than living another day without his beloved. Nobody believed but everyone accepted it. The king's word was law and if his grandfather said it then it must be true because the king was after all an anointed monarch and why would god chose a lying man for their king?

Francois spent countless nights since then, thinking of his parents, their faces, the touch of their hands, their lips on his forehead. It didn't stop there. The further he tried to repress those memories, the more they kept coming back, sometimes in the form of strange prophetic dreams.

"I haven't been sleeping well." He said. "When I wake up in the morning I see her standing before me, carrying me and my brother and holding our hands near her swollen belly where she carries our nest sibling then it changes and I see her crying holding with her my sister. I know it sounds ludicrious, but every time I wake up, or I think I do, I see her and every time I try to run away from her she keeps calling me back."

"Have you been doing exercise and taking the herbal tea Master-"

"Yes I have. I have been doing everything he says but I keep seeing her. I miss her uncle, I can't fathom it but I do. I miss her and this marriage with Mary Queen of Scots angers me. Except for her name, she is nothing like my mother. She is proud and vain and she does nothing but boss me around." He paused. "What is so funny?"

"You sound like your aunt on her first marriage."

"I am nothing like any of them."

"I don't mean your aunts Madelaine and Margot. I mean your grand-aunt Marguerite. She didn't want to marry either and renegaded when her daughter Jean was going to marry the king of Navarrer but she gave in when your grandfather convinced her of the great benefit of it."

"So I'm to marry the spoiled Scottish brat because of the greater benefit of it?"

"Just do it. You don't have to consumate the mariage until later when she will be well past her bearing-age."

He grinned at his uncle. "That's brilliant, except I don't know if I could wait for twenty years until I get a divorce."

"You don't have to." His uncle proposed.

Francois looked at him directly, knowing behind his black pools some Machiavelian scheme was being worked out. "What are you suggesting uncle?"

"Your twin isn't interested in ruling and he's already made this obvious. Marry the girl, get a son on your sister in law."

Now he knew why he was his grandfather's favorite son. Unlike his father he didn't lack the vision to do what was necessary and best for France.

He smiled sardonically at his uncle.

* * *

He sent his ambassador either way to England. Just in case he found a way to get out of his marriage with Mary Stuart.

Mary was happy to receive them even if she had to stand in the room with her stepmother.

"The king is allied with Scotland so he can't openly wage war with it by allying himself with its number one enemy."

"We are enemies now?" Mary asked amusedly, her open smile even amusing Katherien and her mindless laughing zombies of ladies.

"We are under the Auld Alliance signed by the queen and king's ancestors."

"I am well aware of that ambassador. We don't need history lessons. We need to know if the king's Parliaman will be open for discussing a marriage alliance between him and any of his brothers to one of our daughters."

"Your Grace, you know he can't. Your only daughter is their full sibilngs, under any canon and secular law-"

"We know that ambassador, we mean our cousins' the ladies Grey and Clifford. You can arrnage something for them?"

The ambassador and his companion looked to the queen dowager who was silent. She decided to speak now seeing she was looked on intently.

"The lady Mary is right." She said ommitting her greater title. "My late husband's nieces have female offspring that are the right age for His Majesty and his royal siblings. And if he needs further confirmation of our House's good will" she continued "the lady Lennox has birthed a daughter and she is of the House Stuart just as his current bride."

"Through a lesser branch. If Her Majesty means to supplant the Queen of Scots with his grandchild's sisue-"

"We don't suppose anything ambassador. We just want what is best for both our countries. Go to your master and tell him what we've told you. He will be happy to know we are of alike thinking."

The ambassadors looked at each other then shifted their gazes to both women. There was no question who was pulling the strings and who was following who. They nodded their heads, curtsied to both royal women then left.

Katherine raised herself up. "Well that's that. Who wants to go see His Majesty joust now?" Her ladies and new charges screamed and jumped like a pack of wild hens and monkeys following their mistress to the door.

Her daughter was among them, but she wasn't an idiot like the rest of them. After they'd gone. Bess visited her and asked her why wasn't she at the tourney. She and Bess had become closer as of late.

"I don't feel like it."

Mary said feeling the usual cramps that came with every miscarriage. In spite of her last three, her appearance remained the same. Elizabeth knew about one but she kept her sister's secret thinking it was natural and not her doing.

"Is everything alright?"

She shook her head. "No." She confessed. "I'm thinking about my sons. First time they've asked for my help or rather _our_ help. Don't know if Edward will agree though."

"He is our brother, if we all join hands in this he will."

Perhaps, Mary wanted to say. Edward had his own mind and it was unlikely he would agree. She was finding out controlling him would be much harder than she thought.

"Sometimes I wonder if this is not some divine punishment."

"Divine punishment for what?"

"For our father's sins. He killed your mother and killed my mother slowly sending her to the More didn't he, then the did the same for Jane." Poor Jane, when she thought about her poor, docile, stepmother and the sacrifice she gave for her country, Mary couldn't help but pity her –coupled with a strong feeling to strangle her.

She reminded her of what she could've been if she remained married to Philip. –That problem solved itself –she thought with a mental smile.

"That is ridiculous. We don't pay for our sins unless we deserve to. Everyone sins and not everyone pays. If hell would be running out of places to roast souls." They laughed. "You will do good by your grandchildren." Mary tilted her head and blinked.

"Don't act so surprised." She rubbed then nudged her elbow playfully. "I know you desire grandchildren." Though by how is a good question. But she left it unsaid.

"Who do you supposed your children will marry? Some fashionable prince or dashing, brave one like our father?"

"I don't know. I'd like to think they would be happy but I know better."

"You could wait until they are older. They don't have to betrothed now. I can tell Edward to put off any marriage offer for now, including for Henri." Bess offered.

"No, he didn't listen to me he's less likely to listen to you. Edward besides is eager to have as many Portestant allies as he can to counter his Catholic enemies."

"Our Catholic enemies." Bess interjected. "They are our enemies too."

Mary forced a smile. "Yes. Yes, they are." She siad slowly.

* * *

Mary walked to her daughter's chamber but turned when she heard the queen's laughs. She was as usual entertaining her stepmother in her solar and her stepmother as usual was encouraging her daughter's vain little games.

As she made her way back to her rooms, she was stopped by Edward Seymour. "I know what you did."

"What?" Mary asked confused.

"The hunting trip. The one me, Thomas and my younger brother were in. The one your father and husband died. I know it was you who released that beast." His dark blue eyes penetrated hers.

"You are delusional lord Somerset and you are clearly under the influence of alcohol or you think I can't smell it under your breath. Go back to your chambers and come to me when you are thinking more clearly and then we can talk."

She moved past him but he caught her arm, squeezed it and brought her in front of him.

"Release me!"

"You may have fooled the rest but you haven't fooled me. Thomas has a five year old daughter, you wished to sell her off in marriage to that wench's boy you had under your protection, that's why you paid for his education."

"You are speaking nonsense. He was the son of a dear friend of mine. Constance Archer helped me deliver all of my children, I owed her for all her good work she did for me and my husband."

"Yes and all the children she helped you kill." She narrowed her gaze. "I know about your abortions. I had a one on one talk with your head midwife and she told me everything." He released her and she took a step back.

He took a step forward. Grinning with satisfaction, feeding of her fear, he said. "You had three miscarriages and the day your father died and your husband went missing you took that damned potion again. How many more children, I wonder, would you have swallowed for your ambition."

"Seems you have figured it all out. I did what I did lord Somerset t protect my children. I couldn't risk dying and leaving them off to fend for themselves."

He chuckled coldly. "The only child you've ever cared is Henri but she doesn't' care for you and after you gave Philip two sons, you decided to consume his other offspring because you could not stand the thought of the next one being a daughter and having to compete with your dear pup."

"The only pups I care for are my sons by Henry, as you've pointed out my daughter can barely stand me and I have your family to thank in parts for." Ever since Mary Seymour was born, it was another precious girl the court was in love with and for once she had to admit that Thomas Seymour was reformed for good because he couldn't stop talking even today about his spoiled puppy.

"You can't stand my niece or any other girl having your daughter's attention, if in the worst case scenario a daughter was born and she became your daughter's best friend it would've taken away whatever little chances you had left to establish a link with your daughter." He stopped. She was scared, he could tell but she remained firm and her face expressionless but her eyes told a different story.

"What is it that you want?"

"Did you intend to kill us too?"

"No." She confessed, having no more reason to conceal the truth from him. "My father was supposed to go alone on that hunting trip with only a few, Philip wasn't even supposed to go."

"I find it hard to believe you did not have it in your equation to take your husband out."

"Believe what you will lord Somerset but I am not cruel. I did love Philip once. How could I not? Hen he came to the spring Court for the first time, I was surprised to see him and having no other attention but to me then when he kissed me after he promised to marry me I felt like the luckiest girl on all of Christendom. But then the next day lady Anne summoned me and he told me my father had recalled him. I didn't believe her but then I found he had left willingly without putting much a fight and later m father married Katherine Howard." Her expression turned sour.

Edward Seymour could not help but pity her. He had many illusions about his first marriage as well.

"Why kill him then?"

"It seemed the only logical thing to do. The beast was already deployed and the queen's uncle was there with you, it was too sweet an opportunity to miss."

"With me and my brothers gone and you would be regent for your sons and my nephew."

"Yes, I would lie if I said it didn't pass through my mind. But I hold no resentment towards you or your kin. My quarrel was not with you and we both seek to work for a common goal." _Edward._

"Except that we have a greater enemy who will destroy you, sooner rather than later if you don't do what I say."

"You misjudge me lord Somerset. I am made of tougher steel than you."

She walked past him and this time he didn't stop her but he shouted as her figure slipped into the shadows. "That won't stop Dudley and the Duchess Dowager of Suffolk. They will eat you alive if they could and feed your remains to their dogs."

She turned around. "Then let them." She said. "In death I will become a martyr, far more dangerous than being alive. By the way is Constance still in your custody or has she gone on permanent vacation?"

He grinned. She was smart, deadly smart.

She smiled back a knowing smile. "That's a shame. I will have to send extra money to her family then. Good day lord Somerset." She said turning back around again then slipping back completely into the shadows.

Edward Seymour couldn't help but smile wider as he watched her disappear. She was an enigmatic figure, and he intrigued her, he felt an intense thrill he hadn't felt since … ever, really, when he was around her.


	10. Chapter 10

_Thanks to those whi reviewed. I appreciate your input but please be courteous. I have no patience for tween wars and I don't want this to become another fan war if you can't be mature about it, review another story that meets your expectations._

* * *

_"And domestic broils._

_Clean, over-blown, themselves the conquerors_

_Make war upon themselves." -Tragedy of Richard the Third._

Mary stepped away. Her brother entered the chamber and dismissed her maids of honour.

"Who are these ladies? I don't know any of them."

"They're my new maids of honour. Some of them come from the most prominent families in the North."

"You mean the catholic North." Edward said. "I don't like them. Give them back to their families."

"Now? It's too soon. They've already sworn their oaths-"

"I said take them back. I won't have catholic spies in my kingdom."

My kingdom. Mary tightened her fists. -It's thanks to me you have this kingdom.

She unclenched them and bowed her head. "Yes brother."

He waved his hand dismissively and turned to his Uncles.

"What are the news regarding Scotland?"

"Supplies are lacking. The troops are starving and threatened to leave if they don't get paid-"

"Then pay them. We can spare more than enough for conquering that miserly kingdom."

"Your Majesty, we don't have sufficient funds. We've wasited all the treasury on these expensive wars. Maintaining Bologne and Montmirail as well as Calais has beeen draining our coffers, we cannot keep fighring underthese circumstances."

"And what do you propose Somerset, that His Majesry abandons everything for the sake of saving a few coins?"

"If it means saving his English subjects from more arduous taxes then yes!" He said. His voice resonating loudly in his nephew's presence chamber.

Edward Seymour's eyes looked ready to kiil, they pierced Dudley's who didn't look away, and wasn't intimidated like the rest.

Edward Seymour seldom showed his feelings to anyone, displaying emotion was for the weak. He learned to hide his emotions behind a veil of secrecy and a coldness that he loved to project to others.

Dudley on the other hand, hid his emotions very well but wasn't afraid to show them once in a while to remine his enemies and allies alike that he was a functional humsm being and not an emotionless machine like Edward.

"Enough. My uncle is right, our treasury is exhausted. If soldiers can't be paid then they won't fight. However we must look for another outlook to draw revenue." The king said.

"We can always tax the hospitals and whatever church remains."

"That would be unwise." Mary quickly said.

"How come?" Dudley asked.

"Forgive my sister lord Warwick, she forgets she's here as a mere guest not a participant."

Mary ignored her brother's mock apology and replied to Warwick. "The churches are under the king's jurisdiction and taxing them would be a grievous offense to our establishment that holds all things faith-related sacred."

"It does but the king is the spiritual head of the realm, the churches are just symbols of his authority and they can be taxed just as any other establishment."

"A church isn't just any other establishment." Mary said.

"We didn't know you still remained such an enthusiast about Catholic priests." William Paget said whose snicker was shared by others.

"What I pray to Sir William is none of your concern."

"But it is to me."

She turned to Edward. "All I'm suggesting is that you think this through Edward. The French and the Scottish are anxious, they would love to see discontent among your people."

"And they will." Edward said, rising. Everyone rose and instructed his friend and loyal servant and former page boy to dictate a message to the North. "I bow to no king or queen. If the lady of the scots wants to come here to negotiate, she shall be awarded the greatest hospitality owing tk her rank but she can't expect much else."

Fool. Mary and his uncles thought. Edward was pursuing a policy of isolationism that benefited no one except his big ego.

He admired his ancestors, namely the ancestors for which he was named, the penultimate Edwards, Edward III and Edward IV. He wanted to be a warrior like them but he didn't realize that warriors weren't born, they were made and seldom they made wise kings. The third and fourth Edwards had the advantage of foresight, presumably a vison of the future where they ruled a prosperous England, they had secured her borders and expanded the monarchy's ambitions for foreign expansion, but soon after their deaths the repercussions of their deaths and their lust for warfare was felt on the English people. And since the English couldn't fathom laying the blame for their un-prosperity at their heroes' doors, they laid it on their immediate successors.

Two generations of Edwards, lusty, gluttons, womanizers, and whore-seekers. And their present Edward wanted to be like them.

God help us all.

"The queen regenet will never accept your terms." Mary said boldly causing many heads to turn in her direction. "Promise her that you will consider and the Guise might conspire with you to remove your nephews, the French threat and help you alienate them from the rest of Christendom."

Edward opened his mouth. "Germany included." She added and Edward closed his mouth.

"She's got a point." Thomas Seymour chimed in.

"I'm not interested in what the Guises think of me. They are known to be staunchly Catholic and have proclaimed they will burn as many Protestants to achieve their goal for a universal faith. Ha." He smirked, shaking his head.

"That may be, but you'll find even the staunchiest of Roman Catholics buyable when you offer them the right price." Thomas Seymour said. Even their family's enemy and rival, lord Warwick, John Dudley, agreed.

"I will have to think this through." The king said. "You're all dismissed. Uncle, lord Warwick, stay. Sister I will see you later."

Mary assented then left. She was being excluded from secret matters and treated like another subject. He confided in Somerset and Dudley instead.

She let the envy die down as she walked to the king's library. Edward had done more to agrandize the royal library in Hampton than any of his predecessors, even their grandfather Henry VII with his scholarly mother Margaret Beaufort, countess of Richmond.

"I knew I would find you here." Ned Seymour said taking a seat in the chair facing her.

"My brother sent you here."

"Yes and no. He and Dudley wanted to make sure you weren't writing a secret message to your firstborn."

She chuckled. Her brother always thought the worst of her. No doubt thanks to his uncles, Dudley, and other councilors of his.

"He doesn't have to fear me. I don't need a coded message to make my son aware of what he's plotting."

"You confess, you still want revenge on the English people."

"Oh I don't deny it Your Grace, but not the way you think. I am far smarter than that." She said with an enigmatic smile. "If I truly wanted to harm our precious Isle, I would've done it already taking the king and all my other siblings out including Philip's sons and leave the way clear for Francois but I didn't."

His eyes pierce hers. "You can think of me what you like the rest of my brother's council but I'm no monster."

"No. I think you're far more dangerous." He said calmly.

"If you really think that then why come here when I'm so dangerous?"

After a minute of silence that hung in the air, Edward spoke up, his voice cold as ice and his words cut deper than swords. "You want none of your sons on the English Throne. You don't care for your eldest son's failures despite your brilliant act today in my nephew's council providing him with the tools for his downfall. You knew Edward would never liste -the advice coming from you. And your son despite being so young is far smarter than his predecessors, including both his grandfathers. Before my nephew could enact your plan, your son Francois with his uncle's network of spies and with his aunt's counsel would have smelled it right away and put an end to it before it ever began."

"Bravo Your Grace. You should've been a astrologer instead of a politician-"

"**You **don't want the throne for any of your sons, you want to keep it in your male siblings' hands just as your father intended because if your sons ever attain the throne then your precious control over the monarchy is over." He spoke more forcefully. "You wish to be queen. Through them you could never be, but through your siblings, malleable and loyal to you, you can be. There's a little flaw in your plan however. You as the rest of England, didn't count that Edward could not be controlled. Not by me, Dudley, and certainly not by you."

"You seem to discover my little plan. Do you think that stops me from being his top advisor? My mother inteded for me to rule and that's what I intend to do and if I have to box my brother's ears so he can see reason then so be it. I will not let my father's legacy and everything our dynasty build burn to the ground because of Edward's foolishness."

"Your patriotism is admirable but just as foolish as my nephew's. Edward cannot be controlled. Given more time, if he had been older when you decided to make him king, he would've been far wiser and easier to talk to, but instead you set the monster in him free."

"He is fourteen, there's still time."

"No, there isn't. You don't realize it. None of you do. You've set the tiger free and we're all at his mercy now."

Mary pursed her lips. She considered this from the time of his accession, but she kept telling herself Edward was young and could still change.

Edward read her thoughts through her expression and moved his chair close. "No one is going to escape his wrath. You should've let him grow, under rigorous tutelage, he would've matured and grown into a responsible prince and he would've been ready to take the throne."

"And do you think that would've made a difference?" She shot back. "When our great grandfather, Edward's namesake, took the throne, he was just a simple earl with both his father and brother beheaded the previous winter. Did he do mistakes? Yes. But kingship changed all that. Edward is young and like all youngbkings he is impatient. Given time, he will grow to be a wise ruler. Many kings who were known for their mischief were transformed overnight when the crown was placed on their heads."

"Crowns do queer things to the heads they're placed upon." He moved even closer and rising then leaning forward, feeling his breath so close to her on her neck, he whispered in her ear: "But not all kings became the illustrious monarchs our last two Edwards did. Our present Edward might take more after his father or his ill-fated many times great-uncle, Richard II." Then he became erect and locked eyes with her again. Dark blue met sapphire blue.

"But I sincerely hope for both our sakes you're right because I won't be the page in someone else's history book if he turns against any of us."

"And why should he? We've both served him well. I have at least."

"Kings don't care who serve them well."

He then asked. "Have you thought of my proposal?"

She gave a slow nod. Edward waited for her answer.

"I still need more time."

"You have one day." He told her.

"I need more." She insisted

"You have only one day and if you don't have an answer by tomorrow then the offer is off and the king will see your married to one of the principalities in Rome or one of the duchies in the German city-states."

She snorted. She'd like to see her brother try. She told him. Clearly the good duke didn't know her.

"This is not an offer you can escape from, your brother and his other councilors have been conducting negotiations for months now." She glared at him, her eyes widening in surprise. Edward Seymour grinned. She wasn't a great actress as she thought she was. She was easy to read and her moves were so easy to predict. "Reject my offer and you will see yourself shipped off far from government and the country you love, accept my offer and you might still have a chance to make a difference."

"And what makes you think the privy council and parliament will accept it?" She poised. It wouldn't be for love, Mary thought, momentarily considering his offer. It was for survival. A marriage of convenience. It wasn't that different from what any of her ancestors had done and she had to admit, the thought of defying her brother's councilors appealed to her. And the man in question was not so bad. Broad shoulders, dark blond hair, fair skin and dark blue eyes, tall and statuesque, he'd make a good breeder if they ever decide to have children.

Mary shouted mentally. No! She was done with husbands and men controlling her. For once, she wanted to be her own mistress. But the duke was right. Edward VI and his council would never leave her alone unless she married.

A woman's only defense is marriage, Christine de Pizan had written, and her mother had raised her to be the perfect wife for the perfect husband. -Once again, slace to men. -She thought sourly.

Edward knew she was pondering hard on this. She didn't like the idea of abandoning her newfound independence for another man and he didn't blame her. Edward's late wife had treassured her independence, however brief when he let her dallied with whoever she wanted. In spite of what everyone thought of him, including his late sisters, he did have a heart and he had loved Anne passionately. No other woman compared to her. They had agreed to an open marriage for their ambition's sake and they had made their marriage work thanks to that agreement and that they both understood each other very well. In spite of her affairs, it was him she was bound to, and in spite of his attraction to the former princess, it was Anne he was bound to. Her death was a great loss to him, the children that were likely his brother's and Bryan's followed her soon after. With no heirs except two from his previous marriage he and Anne had worked hard to disinherit -Ironically because they weren't his -he was forced to look once again on the marriage market for an elligible bride.

With Mary's husband out of the way and with her current dilema, she made the perfect candidate.

Mary cleared her throat making the duke turn. "If" she started. And that's a big **if **-she thought. "I decide to take your proposal, what would I get in return?"

"We already established that."

"States and lands is less than what I have in mind. I want to control my own wealth, my lands, my children's lands, they will all remain in my control." She told him.

"I will accept nothing more." She emphasized hardening her gaze as he looked pointedly at her. It was more than any wife had asked of a husband. -But there were precedents but all those had been made by women of royal blood who were one way or another related directly to princes and kings. Mary had forsaken her claims when she married the Valois prince and later forced to renounce to that marriage and marry the duke of Bavaria instead. It was a great gamble, but one he was willing to make. Her claim was non-existent but her children were still in the line of succession, and except for her three eldest, they were right behind her male siblings.

"Done." He said, swallowing his pride. "I will come in the morrow with my brothers and my sister in law to bare witness to the ceremony."

"I will bring one of my own kin as well." Mary said but he was already gone.

She smirked. The good duke had left in a hurry. He didn't like the idea of having a wife whose blood and wealth was too much for him to handle but like her, hr had no other choice.

"Jane." She called on her younger maid of honor. "Fetch me my cousins."

"Which ones Your Grace?" She asked her mistress. "Lady Lennox and Her Grace of Suffolk. Bring them immediately." She commanded.

Her cousins entered her bedchamber. Jane Dormer closed the doors behind them, locking them.

"What is it now my lady? Edward pouting again?" Meg said saucily, letting the best of her jesting attitude get ahold of her.

"Meg! For shame. If His Majesty were to hear-"

"But he won't. He is too busy playing with his dogs fetch."

"I wasn't aware he was given more hounds." Mary said, always amused by the women's exchanges. They were the only two besides her daughter, that made her life livelier.

"I wasn't aware either." Frances said, not surprised if it was her cheating husband who gave him one.

"I wasn't speaking of dogs." She said and the cousins rolled their eyes in awareness and burst out laughing.

Mary told them about her agreement with the duke of Somerset.

"You are crazy! Your brother won't allow it."

"He doesn't have to know. Mary is finally using her head against those idiots who would call her bloody for ambitioning to put her sons on the throne which I'm grateful -as the rest of England is."

"I'm glad to know I have your support cousin." Said mary with a weary smile.

"Of course you do." Frances said coming to stand next to her. Ever the opportunist, she took her chance to offer her middle daughter as a prospective bride for her oldest son by her late husband, the current duke of Bavaria, Edmund Wittelsbach-Tudor.

Mary hadn't thought of marriage for her son whom she and her brother were regent for his duchy, but it wouldn't hurt to entertain the prospect. After all, she needed as much support as she could garner from the premier noblemen. She couldn't always rely on the commons. Despite their love for her, it wasn't enough.

"Then count me in too but don't count my support for any marriage between my offspring and yours -unless the king approves of course." Meg quickly added.

"You are a sly one cousin." Mary said and Frances agreed.

"I take after our great Tudor ancestress."

"Elizabeth of York!" Frances said with mock laughter.

"Margaret Beaufort." She said and both cousins went silent. Meg broke the silence, swinging her arms around both of them. "Come on, this is not a Sultan's court where brother kills brother. I may be sly but I know who to be loyal to."

"The highest bidder." Frances answered for her.

"Is there any sin in that cousin Frances? Any courtier does that, Anne Boleyn did it, the queen dowager Katherine Howard did it and Bessie does it, everyone does. My only fault it seems is that I'm more blunt about it with you, my dear friends and cousins."

"We are glad we are your dear friends. I shudder to think what would be of us if we were on opposing sides." Frances said

"You don't have to worry about that cousin. I return kidness with kidness and I repay loyalty with loyalty." She assured them both.

* * *

The following day in France, Francois was dining with his betrothed, young Marie Stuart as she styled herself now. She was part French on her mother's, the prominent Guises, side; but since she'd arrived, she had become more French than the ladies at court. Francois could not deny she was beautiful and her cat-like eyes and innocent expression reminded him of his mother. They were only a year apart, he to be eleven this year and she ten.

"Is something wrong?"

"No. Why do you say so?"

She gave a delicate laugh and pointed to his face. "Your eyes blink every time you lie. I do that too." She rose and sat on the chair next to him, pushing it even closer to him. "Mind telling me what's wrong Your Majesty?"

He sighed. He might as well. He saw no escape from her. "My mother. I've been having dreams of her and this lioness, she has green eyes and she tilts her head at my mother, mocking her. Every time that lioness nears blood comes from her mouth and the lioness says bloody. Behind her there is this woman who shouts insults at my mother." He shook his head. "Some people are so ignorant. They think the know my mother but they don't. They don't know the true Mary Tudor and are ready to call her bloody and psycho without putting themselves in her shoes."

"Seems like we are on the same boat." He looked at her questioningly. "My mother, she's queen regent along with the bishop and everyone calls her a whire for taking charge of her daughter's kingdom while she's away instead of sewing and reciting poetry like good women are supposed to do."

Her mother wasn't well liked in England either because the English as the Spaniards who ironically they despised, were just the same in terms of ignorance and self importance. Marie never understood that insufferable Spanish and English pride. They did hard work on the back of their subjecys and on the blood of other poor nations like Portugal, Scotland, and Ireland.

"Ignorant people huh?"

"Yes, ignorant but what can we do? If we force them to change their mind we would be no better than them. It is better to ignore them."

"But some things you can't ignore." Marie said. "You can ignore them for a while but if you don't do something they will just continue to speak and throw venom. Sometimes harsh rule is needed. What?"

"Nothing." He said, ceasing his laughter but his grin remained. "You reminded me of my aunt and my grandfather's late mistress." Some of the smartest women I knew -and he was about to say _my mother too._

Marie blushed. "I speak only what I think."

"And its good you do." He said taking her hand. Perhaps their marriage would not be so bad after all.


	11. Chapter 11

_"No one knows what its like to be the bad man_

_To be the sad man_

_Behind blue eyes_

_And no one knows what it's like to be hated_

_To be a failure_

_To telling only lies_

_But my dreams they aren't this empty_

_As my conscience seems to be_

_I have hours only lonely_

_My love is vengeance_

_That's never free._

_No one knows what it's like to feel these feelings like I do!_

_And I blame you!_

_You!_

_You!_

_No one bites back as hard as their anger_

_None of my pain can show through_

_But my dreams aren't this empty_

_As my conscience seems to be._

_I have hours where I'm lonely_

_But my love is vengeance that is never free._

_(Discover  
LIMP Say it.  
Discover  
LIMP Say it._

_Discover  
LIMP Say it.)_

_No one knows what it's like to be mistreated_

_To be defeated_

_Behind blue eyes_

_No one knows what it's like to be mistreated_

_To be defeated_

_Behind blue eyes_

_And no one knows how to say that they'er sorry_

_And don't worry_

_I'm not telling lies_

_But my dreams they aren't this empty_

_As my conscience seems to be_

_I have hours only lonely_

_But my love is vengeance is never free._

_No one knows what it's like to be the bad man_

_To be the sad man_

_Behind Blue Eyes." -Behind blue eyes by Limp Bizkit _

_"No matter how many times you want to belong to a group, you will always find them ridicule you and cursing you with dirty spells behind your back because sooner or later they realize what you don't -you are a joke. If you don't belong to your people you belong to no one and that makes you dangerous." -Eden by A.N._

Mary struggled with her bow. She was a good archer but today she was feeling tipsy. Francis' younger brothers had told her he would never marry her. People were talking behind her back that she was too old for him.

For what? One month? That was ridiculous. She was one age younger than him. If it was that, he was the one who was older than her not the other way around. People, she swore under her breath. It's why she preferred the company of animals over them.

The late King's bastard sons had died in a tragic accident, similar to the one that happened to the would-be-king in England many centuries ago during the Norman era. It was a sad happening. Francois had been very close to his bastard uncles and so was his uncle, Prince Charles, but perhaps it was better they died. No rival claimants.

"Score!"

Francis cheered patting his brother on the back. She twisted her mouth. He was too close to his brothers and his uncle. His Aunt Marguerite did nothing to better the situation. She constantly bickered with him regarding Mary. She knew the woman didn't like her. If the Prince had one strong Catholic ally like his father had had in his late mistress, she would've been safe but in a court that was fast becoming the nest of staunch heretic vipers, nothing was certain anymore.

"Score!" She turned and saw Francis smiling, the smile directed at her.

She looked at her arrow and realized it went missing then to the target in front of her where it now was.

"A perfect bullseye." He said with wink then kissed her cheek making the other girls in his Aunt's train jealous.

She smiled widely. They were just children but old enough to understand their position in the world. Mary threw her arms around him and whispered in his ear "It's all thank to you." And smiled smugly at the women, his Aunt included.

"If this is how every compliment is going to go, I will give you more."

"You can start by marrying me."

"Ha, ha. That will be the day." He said taking her hand and leading her to the Great Hall.

"Why do you keep diverting the subject?" She asked after they sat at the table on the dais. They were soon joined by his other family who came in seconds later.

"What subject?"

"You know what. Don't act the fool with me. You could've married me right now and nobody would protest."

"It's not right."

"Why not? You are the king. Your Grace holds a higher standing than all the kings in Christendom. Not even the king of Spain has the power you have." She said emphasizing the 'you'.

He sighed and drank from his golden goblet. A gift from his uncle Charles before the death of his late grandfather and Francis' ascension as king. "It's not that simple." He said. Mary was a nice girl and she was bolder than half the women at court but with a decorum that superseded them. She was bold but with grace. Graceful but without the snobbery of his Aunt's French women.

"We would have to get a dispensation from the pope then we would have to break our agreement with England and I don't know if you've noticed... France my Queen, is not a great land as her two great enemies."

"What makes them great in size, makes them weak by their parliaments and cortes." She got closer to him. "You are a king. Your people look to you for guidance. If you marry me we can unite the kingdoms of Scotland and France and we would be a power to reckon with. You would not have to worry about Spain and England never again."

He chuckled. "Your arguments are well worded but it would never work. England is an alliance but with further access to this "new world" the Spanish discovered and the Spaniards have dominions over it. They would unite in one massive naval force and just like that" he snapped his fingers "they would be done with us."

He shook his head and grinned, a mocking grin. Her intentions were good, her ambition admirable, but her plan had many flaws, just as the Guise family often did. "I will not risk my kingdom for the sake of one country."

"And what country is that? Yours or mine?"

"Both. France would suffer and the people now want food and stability. My father, may God give him good rest, thought that money came easily. He raised his taxes so much that the same people who were cheering for him at his coronation, were booing him when he went to his next campaign against the Empire and England. The only thing that saved him was my mother's knowledge of the English infantry. No doubt she got it from her mother who was Isabella's daughter, but that wasn't enough to repel the constant attacks against my father's kingdom. What did he get in the end?" He took another sip from his goblet and put it down and looked at her again. "Three towns he gave up to the English and his claim on Milan all done, for good now, to the Spaniards in exchange for peace."

Mary pursed her lips. She was silent but then spoke. "It was all well worth it."

"What?"

"It was well worth to send a message to his fellow kings. If kings do not fight their own battles they can never be at peace. Peace is for the women and the poets. Kings are known for the battles they fight, for the wars they win or lose, for even a loss is proof of their courage, their resilience. That they preferred to fight instead of giving up."

"Wonderful philosophy my lady but useless in real life."

"That's not how the people see it. They love their kings to fight for them. A month without food on the table is preferable than a month with food that was bought with weakness and cowardice."

"Those are strong words Your Grace, and you are our guest here, careful with whom you speak them."

"Forgive me Your Grace, but I feel very strongly on the subject. My father as you know died fighting against the English. He gave up his life for his country."

"And his sacrifice is commendable. But bravery is not exclusive of kings, the men who died with him were also fighting to save their country. A good king must decide what is best for his subjects, they are his kingdom and more precious than the jewels and the crown he wears on his head."

Mary opened her mouth but closed it. His eyes bore deep into hers and she found herself unable to look away. He was a year older but he spoke with the wisdom of a thirty year old.

He is not ten. She thought. He has the body of a ten year old but his mind was much older. He was taught since childhood that being king meant everything. After his father's death, he was forced to grow up. Long were the days of his happy childhood, her mother told her before she and her ladies with their caretaker embarked on the ship that took them to France. She would not be marrying a boy-king but a true king, born and raised by four of the most conniving and ambitious people at the French court and none of them included his parents.

Mary mustered a smile, and chose to soften her voice. "You are right and I am wrong but I still believe in the strength of warriors over peace."

"I don't fault you. There has been much bad blood between your neighboring kingdoms but a wise king knows when to keep his or her strength and when to use it ..." he paused and licked his lips. "against her enemies."

"So you agree, the English are our enemies." Including your mother -she thought.

He held her hand and raised it to his lips. "Everyone who is not us is the enemy."

* * *

Mary sat on her favorite chair. Cushioned and warm unlike the other furniture in her new husband's apartment. Her new husband. She couldn't believe she was yet married. It was unbelievable. Edward Seymour and her -they made for the oddest couple yet.

"My lady a letter has arrived for you." One of her servants said.

"Put it on the stool."

The servant curtsied and left.

Who was it now? Her brother telling her how it was wrong to do what she did. Edward warning her against speaking out against Dudley? Her cousins telling her she had to apologize?

She opened through the seal and read through the contents quickly. _My dear sister ..._It read ..._I am sorry to inform you ..._

Mary tore it to shreds and threw those shreds on the fireplace.

No! Damn Edward and damn Dudley and damn her husband too! How could they do this to her?

Her daughter! Her only daughter! After all she went through to have her and they were taking her from her?

It was one thing to have her in royal custody but in Katherine Howard? That harlot!

What was her brother thinking? This has to be John Dudley's fault. And Edward Seymour, her husband, her brother's protector. HER protector. He was supposed to protect her family from those people.

She threw of the pieces of fabric that she kept for one of her future dresses across the room. She didn't want to cause any disturbance and murmuring among her servants. They were already an unruly lot and no matter what she did for them, they still spoke behind her back.

Mary sat down in her chair, holding one arm. Why was this happening to her? Why was her little brother doing this to her? She believed in him when no one else did. She shed blood for him.

"Releasing the tiger from his cage." Those were Edward Seymour's words but coming from her mouth they sounded truer.

She rested her elbows on her knees and buried her head on her hands.

Edward Seymour was right. She had released the little tiger from his cage but he wasn't a tiger. Not yet. He was a little kitten and he needed her to guide him through the obstacles that still lay ahead. She still believed he could make a good king.

"He just needs time." She said over and over.

Her vision became heavy and she felt a terrible nausea and disgust reaching up through her throat. She rose and ran pulling the pot from underneath her bed and threw up all the contents from last night's dinner.

"Your Grace is everything alright?"

No, can't you see you stupid girl? Mary pulled a fake smile and turned to the stupid woman. "Yes, I am just feeling very tired. Fetch me some wine will you, darling?"

"Yes Your Grace."

She turned her head around and started throwing up again. She couldn't put up with stupidity. These maids her brother imposed on her as punishment for marrying without his permission were intolerable. They were beyond stupid, they were brainless. You had to tell them more than once before they obeyed you. It comes with breeding, she thought. If your parents had a brain, you had a brain, if your parents were idiots then you were an idiot.

She threw up a fourth time then a fifth until it was finally over.

"Your Grace here is your wine."

"Thank you. You can go now."

The maid smiled and said she would pray she would get better then closed the door.

Her lips twisted in disgust. These maids were paid to care for her. None of them truly cared what happened to her, if she died or not. She wished she could have her old ladies back, including her cousins. They were always there when she needed them and always knew what she needed.

She regained her composure and drank from the silver cup that girl brought her. It was spotless. At least she knows that I like my cup clean. Mary drank all of it until it was empty then threw it to the floor. She didn't feel her stomach lurch but felt her legs wobbly and her eyes felt heavier.

Had she been poisoned? This wasn't a normal symptom of food poisoning. Someone had put something deadly in her food. It was Dudley or Katherine Howard. They wanted to kill her to they would have complete control over Edward and her daughter.

Was her husband part of the plot? Of course he is, you fool! He will gain your money and your children's custody. Why would he want to remain with a hag like you?

Mary had not lost her good looks. Her good looks where all she had now that she had been kicked out of the council after her brother discovered her new marriage. Men flocked to her not because of her wisdom but because of them. Without them she was nothing. Clutching her stomach with one hand, she rested the other on the wall and went to her vanity where she put that hand on it. There was just one trace of fading color on her hair but it was on one non-visible spot on her hair, one small spot and it wasn't gray, it was simply dark brown. It was a symbol that age would caught up with her.

But not today.

She wasn't going to let a few dark lines around her hair age her up. She was going to keep her beauty as long as she needed to, to protect her children, Henry's sons, her little cubs. Without her, they were powerless against the evil men ruling for her. And Edward, her little brother did not know how much she had done for him.

They will tare him to pieces. They would take little bites of him until there was nothing left. Before the interference of Anne Boleyn and her family, her father had been a good man. He loved her and her mother and was willing to recognize her as his heir. He even sent her to the Welsh Marshes. Why would he send her there if not to rule as Princes of Wales were meant to do?

She laughed at herself. The poison reached her brain. Her father never loved her. As far as he was concerned he loved only one person and that was Edward because he was his heir and he was male, and even he, he didn't look after properly.

Mary was the only one who would visit her brother, kiss his wounds after he fell off a horse and tend to him at nights, staying late until he fell asleep.

Nobody knew him better than her. She fell on the floor and let sleep take her.


	12. Chapter 12

_"Can't anyone hear me screaming behind these castle walls?  
There is no one here at all behind these castle walls  
Nobody knows all I am alone in this castle made of stone  
Don't say that money is freedom  
but I've been trapped inside it all  
and when I sit so high I am so alone  
I wonder how I can feel at all  
All the top of the world is beautiful  
But there is no place to fall." -Castle Walls by Christina Aguilera_

Mary opened her eyes. Edward was starting back at her.

"What happened?"

"You lost consciousness. Your late husband's physician had to give you a sedative?"

"Where am I?" She didn't recognize this room.

Edward told her maids to leave and pulled the curtains around her four poster bed. "The king has decided to welcome you back at court, your daughter Henri will be there to greet you."

"Henri ..."

"She will still be in Katherine's custody." Edward said knowing what she was going to ask. "But she is allowed to visit you whenever she wants, the same goes for you."

"Will I get to see my other children?" Mary asked, thinking of her youngest offspring.

"Yes." Edward said. He was unsure if that would please her or not but given she didn't show any emotion, he guessed that she was (at least partly) receptive to the idea.

He took off his boots and unbuttoned his leather jacket. "You gave that German doctor quite the scare and the midwives too. They thought you miscarried again."

"And you?"

He shrugged. "I already have a son."

"Yes" she said with a cold chuckle. "By your whore."

Edward's eyes pierced hers. She looked away.

He lay down next to her. "Anne wasn't the ideal wife but she was my partner in everything I did. We shared everything, even her bed at times."

"Did you really love her? It almost sounds like you did." She inquired.  
Could Edward Seymour really love someone? The cold fish, the ambitious, cold prince of the English court? It seemed too impossible to be true.

He looked at her then up, staring into nothingness. "I did. For the first years of my marriage, I never missed a night in her bed but then she and I grew apart. She had trouble reconciling with my code of behavior and I had trouble reconciling with her needs."

"And your first wife? Did you have trouble reconciling with her needs too?" They looked at each other. "I know the stories Edward. I know what you did to her after you found her in bed with your father, they say that you forced her out of your house and she had to walk half a mile until she could encounter some poor soul to take her home. Is that what you would do to me if I don't do as you please?"

"No. Don't be ridiculous." He said. Catherine was a silly, stupid girl who had her head stuck in her clouds and who never learned. Anne and Mary didn't compare.

"That is what you say now but I was once silly and stupid too. Anne I am sure was as well or did you think she slept with all those men because she wanted to?" She often wondered what it would be like to have another man in her bed besides her husband, one that wasn't forced on her by her father or necessity, one she picked and decided to bare his children out of spite and revenge.

"Mary, Anne was a jealous pig but she was smart and Catherine was nothing but a stupid whore who thought she was going to live a fairy tale, both were different and I would have never done to Anne even after all her affairs, what I did to Catherine. Anne was too smart besides." He said with a grin remembering his wife when they would enjoy plotting together. It was the one thing he still missed about Anne, her ambitions, her sense of adventure.

"And me?"

"You are a royal. Casting you out would be the most foolish thing I can do."

"And if I was not?"

"But you are. It's better not to trouble yourself with these things. It will upset the child and if you want the restitution of your lands and control of your sons too, then you better look after our child."

She was surprised that he said 'our' child, not 'your' child as she expected he would. "If it is a boy," she started getting closer to him, feeling the need for intimacy, her hand sliding underneath his jerkin and chemise. "What place will he have in your succession?"

"As my firstborn he will inherit everything, his two half brothers will inherit just a small portion."

"It seems unfair doesn't it? My son stands to inherit at their half brother's expense."

"Their mother made their bed when she chose my father's bed." He said harshly. His father was a man he respected and revered, to have found that he had been cuckolded with him was something unimaginable. He gazed at the flat section of Mary's midsection. His seed had taken root there, his firstborn, he was sure of it.

Would she love him thought? Would he? What good had ever come from anyone of their family? His youngest brother Henry was a weakling and a traitor. He had not done anything to betray their confidence or give them a reason to suspect he would but Edward knew how to tell one traitor by another just by looking at their eyes. He would betray them sooner or later just to save his skin and their sister Dorothy was no different. Then there was Elizabeth who always made fun of Jane for being the boring one, the ugly one. Jane Underfoot, Jane Duckling she called her but in the end it had been Jane who became Queen and she nothing better than a servant and a widower not long after.

Thomas and he, were the only things good that remained of their family. And they themselves were not the greatest role models.  
Edward chuckled mentally. Perhaps god had a reason to give him this baby, to see how more he would wreck the Seymour family, what was left of it anyway.

Mary gave one cold smile. "I guess you don't want to talk. That's fine with me. I always find myself twice as exhausted when I carry a child."

She never expected it would happen again. She was thirty five and it was very rare for a woman her age to give birth again but it happened with great-grandmother, Elizabeth Woodville didn't it? She closed her eyes and rested her head against his chest where her hand still lay, flat against his hot skin.

Edward kissed her forehead. She was another tool for him as far as she was concerned and Edward wanted to keep it that way. Since his first wife, he learned that his mistake had not been in falling in love with the wench, but showing his feelings to her. The more people you love, his mother told him, the weaker you are.  
He grabbed her hand and withdrew it slowly from his chest but that only made her move closer. He stopped and let it rest there.

He had not felt this close to another person since Anne, during the first years of their marriage.

Looking down at her, she was a perfect combination of both women. Supple, young, like Catherine she too had once been naive, like Anne there was nothing in her left but ambition but what made her more special was that she genuinely cared for the people around her. She genuinely cared for her first offspring and his nephew Edward and there was nothing she wouldn't do for them. She had screamed at Dudley demanding to be in the council again before he banished her, declaring that her brother was naked without her.

He put her hand on her stomach. It was too early to tell but would she love this child too as she loved his nephew and his older siblings?

As he moved his hand to her back, pulling her closer into an embrace, he felt her hand slip further down underneath his clothes.

He swallowed, feeling his breeches become tighter on her touch. "Mary." He tried to wake her. Her hand got further down, encasing his member into a powerful grip.

"Mary." His voice got desperate. He let out a sigh feeling her grip soften and rub the many parts of his member. He clung to the sheets, grabbing them hard with his hand as she continued moving and his erection grew.

Finally it was too much for him to resist and he pulled her down against the mattress of the bed and took off his clothes and ripped her nightshift and plunged inside her.

Mary moaned, sighed, then screamed his name when he exploded inside her.

He withdrew from her. He panted, struggling to breathe. His insides were burning, being with her was toxic. It was like experiencing the divine.

He heard a soft giggle coming from her lips. She was still asleep but her muscles were relaxed, her skin less hot and softer than his. She was used to this, her body more adapted to the change than him. He felt his muscles ache when he wrapped his arms around her and lowered his head down to kiss her neck.

There was nothing more he wanted then to be with her, like this, for all eternity.

Before her, he was a moderate man. He had his pleasures now and then with Anne, but he was always conscious of his actions. She had ruined that for him. As she felt her bum against his member, the desire in him welled up again.

He clutched one fist and closed his eyes. Control. Control. He opened them and found his need gone. He focused them on her sleeping form and memorized every line in her face, closed eyes and lips. There was something unnatural about her, other-worldly that drew men like Philip and Henry to leave everything behind for her.

He always questioned what it was, now he saw.

* * *

"What can I do for you lady Jane?" Katherine Howard asked sweetly.

"I came here to talk to your son Madame and His Grace Edmund."

They looked at Katherine.

"Alright. I don't see why not. I will be in my chambers, Henri, Elizabeth, you may accompany me."

Jane didn't like the way the queen dowager looked at her. She was a immoral woman whose family still followed the Roman pagan religion. As far as she was concerned, she was another imp of the devil.

"I just got back from our summer home. My mother gave me a new book to translate, I wanted to dedicate it to His Majesty but I thought it would be put to better use if it were in your hands."

"Why ours?" Edmund inquired taking the black leather book. It was a new translation of the gospel of St. John. A better one than her mother had done three years ago.

"You are my cousins for one and Edward barely has time for me anymore."

"Edward is always busy doing king stuff. That's what mother says." Charlie said being handed her translation by Edmund.

"We are his family, he should make time for us." She said taking off her cloak delicately. After the years of strict rearing by the caring but strict Duchess of Suffolk, Frances, she still possessed her grace.

The adults admired her and held her as a role model. Kids her age envied her and those of a scholarly mind, hungry for knowledge and followers of the new religion like her, wanted to be her. She was like the second coming to her, just as Edmund's mother had once been for the Catholics.

Jane knew her value, she knew her importance, and she knew how to succeed.

"So do you like it?"

"It's wonderful cousin. You did all of this during the summer?"

"Not all of it. My parents helped and the new tutor they hired helped me in some of the sentences when I translated it to Greek."

"It's a hard language, mother says it would take a person years to do it." Charlie said.

"It does but that's why my mother hired the best tutor. I am sure you've heard of him. He is a man of letters and he is going to be in the king's service very soon."

"As what?" Charlie asked, furrowing his brow. As part of his education, he was taught to question everything, including religion.

"Astrology." She said with a disapproving look.

"Astrology?" She nodded. "Please tell me that is not all he will do."

"Do not be worried, doctor John Dee is also a scholar and a master of languages including Hebrew. I know some and I was thinking you and he could partner up together to teach me some."

"Me? A tutor?" He shook his head. He didn't see himself as a tutor. "I think I am better working in the mele."

"Come Edmund. You are a great scholar, much better than your siblings and I've seen you speak before the council. The king holds you in such a high esteem, it would not be prudent to refuse this opportunity."

"You've spoken to the king about this?"

"No but he said something of the sort." Jane simply said.

Edmund was still unsure how to respond. He wanted to prove himself before his cousin, but above all his mother so she could see that he wasn't a complete idiot.

He shifted his gaze to Charlie whose eyes were still on the book. Lucky bastard. He didn't have to carry the responsibilities that he and other boy-rulers had to, even Jane as her parents' eldest child and the messiah figure of their faith, had great responsibilities to attend to. Charlie would never know that pressure.

"I wonder what they are talking." One of Katherine's maids in the other room asked.

Probably discussing who of us will go to hell first. Katherine drank from her goblet. Since her last child, she preferred the taste of sweeter and lighter wine than heavier drinks.

"They must be discussing religion." She said.

"I am sure lady Jane will show them the new book she brought with her. She's such a scholar. Did you hear she was the youngest ever to translate the bible to Greek?"

"No!"

"Yes. Her former tutor works with my cousin's family now and he says little Jane was a little lazy but she was the smartest of that bunch. Her mother has certainly done a good job with all the girls."

"That's just a rumor. Jane is no smarter than your random courtier." Katherine said, keeping her smile as she looked from Bess to Henri who were playing their last round of chess.

"Check mate" Henri said, her voice barely audible among the chattering women.

"But she is Your Majesty. Last year she surprised everyone at court when she spoke to the king in Latin."

"So what? Half the women spoke Latin before she was born thanks to my late husband's, my lady the king's mother, making it fashionable, then thanks to princess Catherine and Anne Boleyn, everyone speaks of it now."

"But none speak it so well as her." One of them exclaimed. All her maids of honor nodded.

Her chief lady in waiting, Jane, lady Rochford and her long time friend, lady Joan Bulmer smirked and shook their heads in disagreement.

"A lady needs more than speaking Latin." Katherine commented. Jane's parents were looking for a good husband for her and strange that they hadn't picked one yet. She heard from her gossipy friends, Jane and Joan, that Frances and Henry Grey had discussed a match with one of the Dudley boys, but after her stepson became king, that came to nothing.

Saucy, ambitious little bookie Jane's parents. They knew who to set their eyes on. No doubt, they had them locked on Edward ever since his father died.

"She needs modesty, good looks, and above all an elegant wardrobe. If she has none of these things, then she can't call herself a lady or hope to make a good wife."

"I don't think cousin Jane is looking to make a wife, Katherine." Bess said. She had seen Jane and her sisters, and they were very close to the queen's family and as of late, her brother Edward. "She said that if she could live the rest of her life enclosed in a room only with books, she would choose that over marriage."

"Very sad choice." Katherine said dryly, not believing for once that is what bookie Jane wanted.

For all her love of books, every girl wanted to make a good marriage or make her parents proud. No matter who they were or what level of society they came from.

"Lady Jane will have to rethink her priorities for when her mother starts looking for a husband." Whether she likes it or not -She thought. -And she had the perfect idea of just who they had in mind for her in case their first choice became unavailable.

"Is it true that she was a star pupil?" One maid asked.

"No." Joan Bulmer quickly said before the younger girls could open their mouths to respond. "My cousin worked for the Greys and they said she has been reading at an adult level since she was three. No doubt Frances must have hit her really hard to get some response out of her."

"Joan that's mean. The Duchess Frances is a good woman."

"Yes but that's not what everyone believes and that's not what her daughter believes either."

"Jane is young. At her age we all invent stories about our parents. Jane is just exaggerating." Bess said.

"She isn't, she says her parents are too strict."

"They are not. I've been in their house many times with Mary," Bess explaining, ignoring her cousin and queen's dirty look when she mentioned her sister. "And they always show themselves as kind and caring. It's Jane who shows herself always a bit ... spoiled."

"That is because she is spoiled." Katherine said, deciding to put an end to this conversation. "Joan why don't you bring Master Wellington and his other musicians to come and play for us? It's getting very boring in here."

Bess became silent. She enjoyed her time with her royal cousin, but she didn't open herself to Jane like she did. Yes, Jane was spoiled and always thought of herself greater than anyone, but she was just a teen. Every teen acted that way.

Henri was silent during the entire time. She joined in the random celebrations that followed, laughing and joking but inside she couldn't wait for Jane next door to leave. She loved her brother and she didn't like him spending time with Jane, neither did her step-grandmother who reluctantly let her eldest son join them. She loved Edmund just as Henri did, but she didn't like Jane and her influence on Edmund was too much to take away, she didn't want her son Charlie to be under her influence.

Hearing the laughter from the next room, a soft laughter, discreet, poised, she wondered if she would ever get any boy's or scholar's attention like Jane did?

What would be left for her, the bastard her mother insisted was a true royal, and whom Jane and others mocked for her lack of faith? Would she enjoy some of the royal spoils or be just another footnote in history?


	13. Chapter 13

_"You have children, how happy are you?"_

_"Not much. But if it weren't for my children. I would throw myself off the Red Keep a long time ago" _

_-Tyrion and Cersei Lannister._

Mary lied back on her rocking chair. Edward insisted on building this useless thing for her. _If you are going to build this at least add a cushion. _She had said.

He did. Blue cushion with the letters E and M embroidered in gold. As if that made it better.

Amusing. Poor man trying to be the driving force behind the throne of England. Admirable but pittable. Her brother was his own person and she couldn't control him at times. Nonetheless, her husband believed he could.

She thought about when her brother was born. She had held Jane Seymour's hand as she labored for nearly two days. Her father never paid any attention except when he was sick. She was always there for him. She raised him as a son. After her father brought her back to England, she had deposited all her hopes and ambitions on him. Edward was her little pet project at first but he soon became someone she loved and worshiped above all others.

When everyone believed he was unready, she didn't. She had supported his kingship even when the more conservative faction tried to convince her not to. She saw himself in her, and the woman who had become her true friend and the surrogate mother after her own mother died.

Her thoughts drifted then to her husband.

Edward Seymour wanted to show his wife that he cared. He gave her everything she desired. However there was one thing that she cared the most and Edward had not failed in delivering it. Every night that she woke up crying, she would have Edward by her side, pretending he was asleep and sliding his arms around her, keeping her comfortable and kissing her neck, reminding her of his presence and making her feel secure.

It was nice to feel loved again but Mary was afraid that it would go away. She was Mary Tudor. She wasn't born to happiness. Everything she loved was taken away from her, death, disease, or stolen.

Margaret Douglas moved her chair closer to Mary and whispered something.

"Meg!" Mary shouted.

Margaret Douglas chuckled, happy she had put a smile on Mary's lips. "True story. We did it yesterday."

"You are impossible."

"Come on Mary. Don't tell me you and Edward never tried it."

"Of course not."

"Too bad. It is very pleasing." Meg said with an amused grin. "You want me to tell how?"

"No. And don't mention it again. I don't want anyone ..." she looked around, her two youngest maids were reading, very far away from where they were in the solar of her apartment. They were reading two of the works Mary had translated with her sister in law, Katherine Parr. She had insisted that all her ladies read or do something productive with their time instead of engaging in silly games like the rest of the courtiers.

"Knowing what we do."

Meg raised an eyebrow then smiled. "So you do know."

Mary blushed furiously. "That's not the point. I don't want those two hens going back to their cocks and telling them what their venerable Duchess of Somerset does."

"Don't worry your secret is safe with me." She made a sign with her fingers on her lips. "But you have to tell me, when did you two start."

"I am not telling you."

"Come on Mary you can tell me. We are cousins are we not and me and Frances were witness on your wedding to your handsome duke."

"He is not handsome and stop speaking like that."

"What? Is the way all the queen dowager's ladies speak."

"All the queen dowager ladies are idiots then." And more idiots then I thought -Mary thought.

"You have to admit they have more fun than we do. Though the queen grows more distant from His Majesty. Poor queen, can't blame her. The king is impossible to get along with." Mary glared at her.

"The queen is an idiot." Mary insisted. "And Edward does right in keeping her away from political affairs, she would just ruin things as she ruined things for my father."

"What do you mean ruin things? She gave your father three sons, well four if you count the one who died, poor boy. But she proved her fertility and I know you hate hearing this but better you hear it from me. It's time to let the past go cousin and admit the queen did her duty and get along with her so you can get Henri back."

"Henri doesn't want me back."

"She does. She speaks highly of you and she loves her youngest brother. If you could just see that."

Mary did. But she was a bitter every time she was around Henri. Because she remembered she loved Katherine Howard more. It was better she remained with her father's old kitten. At least she was happy and Katherine loved her and so did her sister Bess. They had given her everything Mary couldn't.

Meg sighed. "Well I guess I can't win against a talking tree."

"Meg-"

"I know, I know enough with my riddles. But if you want my advice again ..." She went on then stopped when she heard the sounds of footsteps.

"Wonder who it is." She said outloud. Mary didn't rise as she was too heavy now since she was in her third trimester.

Her youngest maid went to the door and turned to Mary. "Lady Jane, Your Grace."

"Oh that mistress pious again." Mary swore under her breath.

"Calm down. I share your thoughts but we must be stronger with her. Remember Frances has done what she can for her and she loves Jane despite what she says behind her mother's back."

Mary nodded.

She gripped the handles of her chair and moved on to her bedchamber. "I will see you later. I want to be here but I think mistress pious won't let me will she?"

Mary smiled and thanked Meg for coming. She watched her cousin leave, along with the rest of her ladies who knew that when her cousin left (and by their mistress stare) so must they.

"Jane." Mary greeted her niece. "Please enter. I heard you wanted to see me."

"Yes, Your Grace. I wish to take Edmund with me to my parents' state to visit my grandmother's tomb."

Mary nodded. She had never been there herself. So many things had happened that it was left forgotten. "Very well, just as long as you and your mother promise to write to me every day to see how he's doing." Not that she cared. But it was a good mother's job to inquire over her son's well-being.

"That won't be necessary. Mother and father will take good care of him and Edmund is a good kid. He excels at his studies and the king, our cousin just granted him another mansion."

"Really, where?" Mary asked, uninterested.

"Framlingham."

"Oh."

"It will be very close to my parents' other states. He can visit us more often and the queen is excited about it, Prince Charlie's state states are near there as well."

Mary smiled. Although she didn't share the girl's excitement over this glorious news.

"If I have your permission to tell Edmund now?"

"You have but before you leave darling, when did the king make this news official?"

"He didn't. He told me and Charlie on supper."

"You and the king seem to be growing very close."

"I hope. The king is one of our most illustrious monarchs. I don't believe England has had such an illustrious monarch like he. They say he is following the same footsteps as his distant relation, the second Lancastrian king, His Majesty Henry V. Never was a scholar made." She said quoting from the French chronicler Jean Waurin.

"Let us hope he doesn't plunge the country into a useless war."

"Let us pray for that too Your Grace." Jane agreed with a big smile, emphasizing the word 'pray' with a stronger tone than in her usual soft one.

Mary watched her leave. She conducted herself with such grace and she had such religious fervor that she reminded Mary of herself. Once upon a time ... But this girl was more adept at the game than she had been. With two parents and sisters backing her, she had more advantage than Mary ever had.

"Do not be worried Mary, Jane knows what she is doing." Ned told her when Mary told him of their conversation.

"Yes I am sure she does."

He watched her slide her hands to her swollen belly where the child kicked furiously, feeling its mother's worry. He placed a hand on her knee. He would never tell her this but in the candlenight and with the light of the moon coming through the window and shining upon her, illuminating her long white pregnant dress and silver threads on her furs, made her looked divine, like a fertility goddess.

"I don't like her being around Edward or Edmund."

"Why not?" Edward asked withdrawing his hand from her knee and slipping under the covers of her bed. In a month she would enter confinement and he would have to wait nearly a month, if not more (if she still followed those silly rituatls of churching), until he could share her bed.

"She manipulates them. I can't explain it to you, but she has this control over them. I have seen it."

He smirked. "You exaggerate. Lady Jane knows how to play the game, that much is certain but she is a religious scholar first, she won't do anything that goes against her beliefs and that means she won't whore herself before my nephew and your son."

"I don't care if she opens her legs for any of them. I just don't want her influencing any of them." She said and he turned.

"I can't have her taking Edward from me." She insisted.

"Mary, she is your brother's cousin and your son's as well. You can't stop her friendship with any of them and the king has discussed a match for your son just as for your daughter. Would you rather your daughter still goes far away to who knows where to marry someone who will likely never love her?"

"I can handle Henri's betrothal. I convinced my brother to cancel Henri's betrothal, I can convince him again. It is Edmund that worries me. It is not enough that I have to put up with a future daughter in law who is queen in her own right and wants to poison my oldest son against our country, now I have to counter this other little rose's influence on my son and Edward."

"She won't get to control your son's lands. The nobles of Bavaria, your son's uncle included, will never accept a woman as zealous as her to exert influence over him. In any case that she attempts to, his uncle Otto will work something to take her out."

"You don't know her kind Ned. You don't know what women her type are supposed to."

Ned gave her a sympathetic look. Both had dropped their shields. He got closer and took her hand, giving it a gentle squeeze. Mary looked up at him then away.

She didn't want to feel this way. She vowed never to fall again. Love was poison, love is a weakness her mother had said. She didn't know what she meant at the time.  
When she met Philip, she thought she would be happy. Live in his castle and raise their children together. It never dawned on her that they would need their parents' approval or that he would choose his duchy over her. She thought things would be perfect like they were supposed to be in a fairy tale. But that was all a lie. She had been deluding herself all this time.

Philip loved her no better than he loved his lands and his duty. He saw her just as another lady to be rescued, same as Henri. Both of them saw themselves as the chivalrous princes rescuing the poor maid.

What a fool she was. She laughed mentally. If her mother could see her now, she would be so disappointed. Every time she dreamed of her, she told herself the mornings after that she was not real. She was just a piece of her imagination, her conscience telling her she had done a big mistake.

Yet, Mary would never admit that she had done a mistake. Foolish as she had been, her first children were the product of true love and while she would never see them again, she was proud of them (she always would be) no matter what.

Henri, she had borne her while in pain and suffering from her husband's absence. At a time she was unsure she could live another day. Just seeing her face made her life worth living. Even Edmund and Owen, innocent and useless as they were, they made her life worth living as well. They gave her purpose, each a different one. They made her life meaningful one.  
Were it not for them, she would have thrown herself from the highest wall in her father's castle a long time ago.

There was only one thing she did admit at being a mistake and that was Philip. She did love him. Black beard, green eyes, tall, muscular, handsome. She had fallen for him just at sight. But he had forsaken her just for a few parsecs more of land.

'Philip' She thought as she felt Ned slide closer and wrap his arms around her. She felt his tender embrace. It brought with it more than just warmth and care, but a feeling of being worshiped that she hadn't felt in a long time.

She turned her face. His eyes were closed. She leaned forward and placed a small kiss on his lips, they moved on instincts and enveloped hers in a more passionate kiss. She whispered his name after they withdrew.

She wondered as she felt the child within her calm down by his father's presence, if she would love this child as she had love her eldest children, if she would feel resentment as she did when Edmund was born, or if she would see it just as another tool as her father had seen her and her siblings?

The child within her was guiltless of what she and Edward felt for each other. He or she, would grow in an environment where everyone was out to get everyone, in a world where factions would determine who you were and your survival. Just thinking of the world this child would be born into, made her wish it wouldn't be born. But then she thought about his father's kiss, on Ned's touch ... he was not like her other husbands. He wasn't the product of aristocratic breeding or chivalrous culture as they were, but this by no means made him an awful lover.

Edward was good in bed as they were, but there was something different in his way of touching her than when they did. When he kissed her, he prolonged every kiss, when he plunged himself in her, he took his time, torturing her until she screamed his name, begging him to take her. And all his touches started like that soft, delicate, then they became passionate.

She thought about Philip again. Could things have worked out between them if she had been more patient? If both had been more willing to forgive the other?

No.

Both had become so estranged when they re-met. The only thing that linked them together was their children and their marriage and even that was a sham.

* * *

"Our mother's son is going to be born soon." Francis' twin told him.

"I know."

"Aren't you going to write a letter then? You are king, nobody would think it strange if you do."

"I don't want to."

"Why not?"

"Why?" Francis asked, with an amused stare. "Our mother married twice, first our father then the Duke of Bavaria and when she had a chance to come back to France she chose to stay in England and play kingmaker to her little prick of a brother-"

"There was nothing else she could do." His twin said, interrupting his brother.

"She had a choice to turn back. Her brother was leaving the ports open just for her. She chose to stay. She loved power more than she loved us."

"You know what she suffered Francis. Imagine if she had come back, to what she would come back to? Would France welcome her with open arms?"

"We would protect her."

"No and you are lying to yourself if you think we could have. Our aunt and uncle hate her just as much as everyone else in our faction and your little betrothed Mary wouldn't have been too welcoming either."

"Mary would have done as I told her."

"For now but once you were married they would have competed like cats for you." He explained. "I know you love our mother Francis and you seek Mary's company because she reminds you of her, but you can't let her or your resentment for our mother cloud your vision."

"I am not letting her cloud my vision."

"That's what you say but your actions tell something different. You take Mary everywhere you go, you talk about her endlessly, sooner than you know you will have the Guises with you too." He rose and sat in the sette next to his brother, he put a hand on his brother's shoulder. "You are the king, you know what is best for your country and what is best for you. The latter I cannot tell you what to do because it's your life but I am warning you because of the former. The decision of marriage affects us all. Remember what our uncle has said, our early lessons, factions destroy the country. Never let our enemies think you favor over the other. Work with all but not for all."

"I know what I am doing." Francis told him.

"I know but sometimes you need to be reminded of it." His twin said with a smirk.

Francis hit his shoulder playfully, his twin hit back. They chuckled and rose together, going to the Great Hall where their guests waited for them.

* * *

Mary hated confinement. She promised she would never get pregnant again for this. Every time it was the same. The army of midwives and doctors trying to take over. They were like mother hens going over everything from what she wore, drank, ate to making sure she prayed correctly.

It was ridiculous. If god truly cared for her child, he wouldn't make her go through this pain.

She felt the child within her stir. Tired today are you? -She thought. Me too.

She could not stand another second of it. She asked to go to the gardens but the midwives told her outright no. Mary felt insulted. "It is only for a second." She explained with a sweet smile.

"No." The head midwife said again in that rough voice of hers. "It is too dangerous and the lady Anna of Cleves, the late king's sister will come to stay with you very soon. You will have company."

"I am just asking for a simple walk. It can't hurt the child."

"Outside will offer many distractions and worries that can place stress on you and the child and make you miscarry him."

Really? Did they really think that? Ridiculous. Mary tried another tactic. "It is too hot here. If I stay another minute I will have a roasted piglet instead of a fine baby, outside is cooler."

"Madame." the midwife said in annoyance. "The king charged us with your care and the duke your husband made us promise to do everything in our power to make sure you were well cared. We will not go against their orders. Now lie down. It has been too excitement for one day."

Too much excitement? She had just had her first real conversation and it was with her! Ugh! These old women. She hoped she would never grow this old.

She did as she was told. Glaring at the head midwife as she came and pushed the covers higher up, she waited until sleep came.


	14. Chapter 14

**Going to end the story this is the last chapter, it will be on Hiatus.**

_"I would explain how much he means to me,  
__I would disclose my deep respect for him,  
I would reveal the workings of my soul  
But at this moment words are render'd weak."_

_-Luke Skywalker _

The birth went better than they had predicted. Ned came into the room and demanded to see hold his son.

All his life he had been at the mercy of other men siring children on his wives, his enemies, his father, his brother ... The last, he could stand. At least Thomas was loyal, when it suited him. Just give him some money and he was satisfied. His father on the other hand didn't care how much he was given, as long as he got to fuck something, including his children.

Ned had been angry when he found out. It wasn't the act that angered him but that the man whom his wife cheated behind his back was his father, a man he had always loved and admired.

Always him. Ned thought. -It all goes back to him. -No matter how much he tried to forget, the image of his father fornicating with his wife, was something he couldn't get out of his head.

Mary took the child back and let down her chemise so the child could feed. She didn't see the need for a nurse anymore. She was old but not that old. Thirty six, was still a good age to have children and she had proven like her ancestress, Eleanor of Aquitaine and Elizabeth Woodville that she could still sire healthy children.

"Hush now my love, more for later." She whispered to it quietly, removing its little wisps of blond hair from his face. He took after Ned in that, his nose, his cheeks, but his almond shaped cat-like green eyes and thin lips were entirely her mother's.

A proud son to take after the Tratasmara lineage. She thought. The only one of her children that inherited these traits.

"Come, mommy has a better surprise for you later if you promise to behave." The baby closed his eyes and scurried closer to his mother's breasts but he was no longer hungry, he just wanted to feel her warmth.

"What?" She asked, seeing Ned's look.

"I never heard you speak to any of your children before."

"She is my firstborn in a way."

He raised an eyebrow and cocked his head, looking at her quizically. "You did not hear?" He gave his head a slight shake and moved it forward, asking what did she mean. "My, my, you can't find good service anymore. You had twins my lord husband. Bring her now!"

The look on Ned's face was priceless. He looked like the earth had swallowed him.

"Say hello to your new daughter."

"Is she ... was she ... born first?" Mary nodded.

Ned's mouth was agape. He was at a loss of words. Damn her. She had tricked him. She had gotten the last laugh on him.

Mary was laughing hard. She calmed herself and pointed to the small 'u' shaped scare on the girl's leg. "You might explaining me that?"

"It's a family birthmark. My mother and sisters have it, so does my niece." He explained bringing the impatient child closer to his face. She had raised her arms, impatient to touch him. She found her father's face interesting and the similar shape of their eyes as she looked at herself in them perplexed her, still young to understand what this meant.

"I was right then. The women in your family are just as interesting as mine. She was the one who kicked me all these months, couldn't wait to get out of me."

Ned didn't hear her. He rocked her gently, lulling her to sleep. His voice was so low that none could hear, except her.

Mary smiled a small smile. For a second her heart had warmed to the scene but then she remembered another similar scene, one she had only seen in her dreams. Henri. Henry. Both daughter and father had never gotten the chance to meet each other. What life would they have if they had? Would he had cradle her as Ned was cradling his daughter now?

She didn't know. And she didn't want to know. It was better to leave that part of the past buried. -He is dead -her mind told her -And he is not coming back.

Yes, and it is because of me.

No -Her mind rebuked her. -It is because of your mother.

Mary's head snapped up. She looked at the painting next to her four poster bed. Edward had moved her confinement from Westminster to Richmond, the ancestral Sheen Palace that their grandfather had renamed after the title he held before becoming King. It was her mother, Catherine of Aragno, in all her splendor before the miscarriages, her marriages to Arthur and her father ... Before all the disappointments.

She looked beautiful. Mary had met her when she was tired and older, several years older than her actual age. In this painting however she looked child-like but sensual enough that Mary could see how someone like her father could have fallen in love with her in an instant.

Blue eyes, raven hair, porcelain white skin, a cheeky face and a thin waist that would make most girls jealous today. She was wearing only a plain red dress with golden designs on her low neckline and an odd looking hat decorated with pearls and rubies.

She was gorgeous. Had been. She wished her mother always remained this way, then her father would never got tired of her since he only cared for fine breasts and faces more than he did on his wives' fertility despite what he always claimed.

Mama. She thought in Spanish. This was the woman who had come from Spain to marry the king's son, her uncle Arthur. The golden prince named after the mythical king who had united all of England against the Saxons. She had come clad in red and then in white, and wearing matching colors with her husband, her marriage promised England the peace and prosperity that her new country had been hoping for since the end of the cousins' war.

Sadly it was not be. Her mother just like another queen they had once loved and feared, turned a blind eye to her promise and chose her own benefit above her new people. One lie, one simple lie. It was all in god's name, she had to tell herself, and it was all done. The crown, the country, it was all hers.

Oh mother ... It was not me that disappointed you but the other way around. Just how much did it weigh on her conscience knowing that like Helen of Sparta she had thrown her adoptive country into another useless war? A war more dangerous than they anyone could have ever imagined?'

Oh mother. How could you have not known?

She gave her back to her wet-nurse. Women don't do that, her father said when she tried to nurse Henri. A royal lady had more than enough servants to do things for her. It was not their place to work or care for their children.

How Mary envied her. That woman with her swollen breasts would know her new daughter more intimately than she ever would but perhaps it was better that way.

"So what do you think?"

"I think she's perfect, healthy, both of them will grow up to be fine nobles like their parents."

"Poor wretches then."

"You don't approve?"

"No. I do approve it's just ..." she smirked. "I just had a crazy idea."

"What?"

"My father used to say: A woman's place is with her children, watch over them or she has no value. Sons, that's what makes her valuable and motherhood." She said.

Edward did not miss the bitterness in her voice. Even after all these years she still couldn't stomach the idea of motherhood.

"It's repugnant." She said. "Every man cares more for how many sons they get than the womb that carries them."

"Not all of us think that way."

"No, you do. All men care for a son, someone to carry their legacy."

"Is Henri your legacy then?"

"Henri is more than just my legacy, Henri was supposed to be my daughter, my little girl. Someone I could raise, watch over, someone I could love. She's gone now just like everything else." She glanced from her newborn infants to him. "I wonder if my brother will be more pleasant now that I've proven how more fertile I can be. He will probably moan that he didn't sell me off to some lord in Germany, Sweden or wherever he planned to marry me."

"Edward has a lot to be grateful for. My nephew has never been one to be angry for long, just as long as you say the right words and compliment his appearance." He said with a grin. "You don't like what I say?"

"I don't like the way you said it."

"I've always wondered how long would it take you to find out what a tyrant our little king is. You still haven't figure it out."

"My brother, your nephew, our king is many things but a tyrant he is not. I have seen tyrants, I was sired by one of them. Edward will not be the same."

"No he will be a new kind of tyrant." Ned said and turned to signal the midwife to take their newborn infants. He turned back to his wife. "How long will it take you Mary to see through him? Does someone have to die in order for you to see that."

"He is not a monster Edward. He is just a boy."

"A boy you chose to be on the throne. What was going through your mind?"

"Power, you said it yourself, I wanted to rule."

He shook his head. "No, I was wrong."

"You admit it."

"Yes." He said with a hard tone. "I just saw how you looked at our children, if you wanted power you wouldn't have allowed yourself to carry them to term." He sat closer. "What was it?"

A pregnant pause reigned. She spoke, her voice was devoid of emotion. "A promise."

He knitted his brow.

"A promise to your sister." She said. His face became expressionless. "Before she died when I was in the birthchamber delivering Edward, she asked me to watch over him then she gave me my mother's rosary and made me promise under pain of death that if anything happened to her that I would be there to watch over him and make sure he became king." Her face became one of melancholy as she remembered that moment. "I wanted the throne for myself, years of living in everyone's shadow, my mother's, my father's, then my sister, there was nothing more I wanted but to sit there and be treated with respect."

She closed her mouth and remained silent for a minute gushing over all the years of humiliation she had to face before Henry came to her life and made her his consort.

"If my mother had borne a boy I would have been just another princess, another royal lady free to marry as I pleased just as my aunts but I wasn't and my father took his anger at my mother's failure on me. I hated all of my father's wives, including your sister. They were always number one in my father's heart. I wanted to continue hating Jane too after she died but when I looked at her son I just couldn't. He had my father's eyes, my eyes. I vowed after her death I would do everything in my power to protect him, I would live only for him."

"Why did you marry Henry?"

"Henry was an anomaly, he wasn't supposed to look on me. He was Elizabeth's betrothed."

"You still married him."

She locked eyes with him. "Wouldn't you too if you just discovered your father married a woman old enough to be his granddaughter and your younger sister and took the only opportunity for you to marry away and on top of it mocked you day and night because he wanted to please his little kitten?" She smirked. "Of all my father's wives, she is the only I cannot forgive. I ran away with Henry because of her, I would do it again in a second. I found freedom with Henry. He gave me four beautiful children and he risked his own life for me."

"And the Duke of Bavaria?"

"You know that story. I don't want to get into it."

"But I do. It perplexes me how someone you loved you could hate so much."

"You loved Catherine didn't you? I heard how you locked her up in that convent after you found she was fuc-"

"Don't. You do not want to go there." He was shooting daggers from his eyes. She didn't miss his icy tone either.

She gave him an amused smile.

"I suppose you understand then. I loved Philip, I gave him my heart. When he returned he expected me to welcome him with open arms. He said he loved me, gave me so many excuses I can barely remember them, to excuse his cowardice. He left me while Henry fought for me to the bitter end. You can surmise how that made me feel."

"Your unborn children-"

"I didn't want to do it. I wanted to give Philip more children, I would have but. .."

"But what?"

"I remembered my promise to your sister. When my father took Henri from me, I spent many days in despair, praying until I stopped praying altogether. One night I decided to visit my brother's nursery chamber instead and I found him there playing with one toy soldier I had given him for his third birthday. He smiled and spread his arms for me, I have never seen him so jolly."

"Everyone else avoided my presence except him. I raised him since then as if he were my own, looked after him more than my father. I will always look after him."

Ned couldn't help but sympathize with her in this. His nephew was a very intelligent person and capable of great things _if_set his mind to it. It was only a pity that she didn't see he was also capable of great misdeeds.

He squeezed her hand softly. "I will help you."

She smiled. She believed him.

* * *

Mary hated ceremonies. They were always accompanied by hypocrisy. A hundred courtiers came to her twins' christening giving her their congratulations afterwards they were presented to her. Lord Northumberland, lord and lady Sudeley, foreign dignitaries and even some new men her brother had ennobled.

It all got so confusing after a while that she just smiled and waved them off impatiently moving on to the next.

She asked to be alone after the ceremonies were over. Her nephew ordered everyone out but he stayed as she knew he would.

"You must be feeling very pleased sister. You have surprised us all. I told Dudley you could still birth children."

"Dudley is someone you shouldn't be worrying about. He will leave on his own accord."

"And what if I don't want him to leave? He proved himself and he is honest with me which is more then I can say for your husband sister."

"My husband is your uncle by blood and now your brother by marriage, his brothers have his best interests for you just as him. If you think you should change council members just say so and I will send letters in your name."

"Half of the realm would complain. Archbishop Cranmer doesn't let me do anything without giving me the constant lecture of what is better for my soul and Dudley keeps telling me what I should and shouldn't do because he thinks he knows better than his king. He should know that I raised him, it's thanks to me he is where he is now."

"Let him see that. Tell him right to his face or better yet, next time he shows up on your doorstep begging you to marry one of his sons to the Grey girl, tell him no. He will understand the meaning of no if you say it loud and clear to him."

"I don't need to tell him anything. Your husband can do that for me."

"My husband was one of Dudley's main supporters. How would it look if two of your best men are at war?"

"You just said-"

"I advised putting limitations on Dudley's authority not make it look like you are setting two councilors at war. Need I remind you Edward what happened the last time a monarch created a rift between her two factions?"

"I am not her, I am not some meaningless consort, I am King."

"That you are but there are many who still doubt it."

"Let them doubt it. I wear the crown, they can't say whatever they please."

"That's not what you said a year ago. You said you would cut every tongue that spoke against you."

"I will but there is a time for war and there is a time for peace."

"Spoken like a true king but I'm afraid being chivalrous won't save you from your power hungry courtiers. A good king knows he must take out his enemies before they become too strong. Don't forget our great-grandfather, Edward IV. He gave far too many pardons to Lancastrians and before long they betrayed, they would have succeeded had it not been for his Woodville relations. You have your uncles with you, lord Sudeley is a military genius and my husband is one of the most fearless politicians in your council."

"Your husband keeps telling me how I should act. At least Dudley has the decency to do it in private."

"Your uncle does what is best for you. If he scolds you in public is so he can teach you a lesson."

"And what is that pray tell me sweet sister?" He asked with a scoff.

"That kings are not above reproach."

His eyes hardened. "I am a king, my forehead is an anointed one while his is made of cheap clay, I only let you marry him because my councilors thought it was a good thing. I could easily annul your marriage."

"Let me?" Mary asked incredulously. "No one let me marry him. I chose him for myself before you and your so called wise-men chose for me. I married him to protect you, to stay close to you."

"You've always watched over me." He said with a tint of annoyance. "I didn't ask you to."

"I know but I still do because your my brother and I care for you."

"Care. What do you care? You consume everything in your path, I've seen it. You care about nothing more but yourself. You killed those three unborn children -oh yes I know -to make room for your ambitions. Care. Pah." He snorted. "You don't care about anything." He turned and walked to the door. "How long before you do the same for his next children I wonder?"

"Do not dare accuse me of murder when you don't know how much I've done for you."

"Killing your children? Is that sacrifice? You've done nothing but follow your own interests since day one. Since your mother died, after my mother died you pledged your loyalty to me but what about your other children? How can I trust you when you turn against your own flesh and blood?"

"You are my flesh and blood!"

"I am just your brother and not even your full brother."

"The bishops can say whatever they want, you are my true brother, even if we only share the same father. Our blood is still the same." She stood and walked to him. She grabbed his hand. "When you were little and you were scared you asked me if I would keep the monsters away, I said yes, now you've grown and you have the crown upon your head. You've seen your courtiers for what they really are. If you want to keep your crown and your loved ones safe, I can help you but you have to listen to everything I say."

A short pause followed. Mary looked into his eyes, hopeful.

Edward let go of her hand and said "No." Then walked away.

Mary's eyes fell on the floor. Why was it everyone she gave her heart to disappointed her? You are deluding yourself if you believe they love you Mary Tudor. But she wanted to believe so hard that they did.

She turned around and sat back down.

* * *

"Uncle good of you to join us. Late as always." Edward said.

"Good nephew thank you so much for the warm welcome." Thomas said taking his seat.

"I wasn't meant to be warm." Edward said derisively. "His Grace Northumberland tells me you lost ten of my troops."

"Did I? I don't recall ever losing things, killing on the other thing which is what you commanded me to do -"

"You lost ten hundred of my best men to those bloody Scots and attacked their fortress, our own fortress they took after I told you not to!"

"Yes about that." Thomas took a sip from his cup. Mary turned away disgusted. Why did her brother ever decided to keep him in the council? Oh yes, she remembered. She told him to. The only good thing he ever listened to. Bloody fool. Seymour was better suited for the barracks than the council chambers, he was a vulgar little thing with an insignificant little daughter who thought she was better than anyone else just like her mother. If she weren't related to him by marriage and through her sibling she would kick him out.

He placed down his cup. "You wrote to me that I should take down the Scots' menace by any means. Your other letter I am afraid did not come back in time."

"This is the last time you've fooled me. Dudley sent it to you three weeks, are you saying he is a liar? Are you saying that I am a liar too?"

"No, of course not. But mail has been known to arrive late before." He gave Dudley a funny glance.

It made Dudley seethed. He shared the king's sister's thoughts. How could the king permit such a scoundrel and vulgar man like Thomas in his coucnil? It was an insult to his father's crown, most importantly it was an insult to him who had done everything to protect that boy's crown. He hated the Seymours with every ounce of his being. They thought so high of themselves when in reality they were just parvenus just like they.

"Typical Baron Sudeley joking while the rest of us are looking after our king, your nephew."

"You don't need to remind me. I just arrived I need to refresh myself. Getting all those men ready for combat was not easy, half of them were thirteen year olds screaming for their mommies."

"If the troops are unable to fight the fault lies with their commander. Isn't that what you always say ... uncle?"

"Right so nephew." Thomas mustered a smile. "But you can't expect a seasoned admiral to train one thousand young boys who are so inexperienced they piss grass." The council laughed.

"You might find this funny uncle but the rest of us do not. You lost one thousand good men because you failed to train them. You were given three months to train them but you chose to spend time with your whores."

"I am happily married to the most beautiful woman in England, no offense sister."

"None taken brother." Mary said ignoring the jab.

"Why would I seek the company of ladies of the night when I can have my wife to keep me company? Speaking of which, you need some company yourself nephew, it would do your temper some good. Sure did your father very good."

"How dare you-"

"Edward" Mary stood up and immediately went to his side, offering him comfort. "Let him speak, he is just a resentful little man. Don't listen to him."

"Lord Sudeley should apologize immediately." Cranmer said. "This behavior is uncomely of him."

"This behavior is uncomely, is that all you can say now Thomas after everything the Boleyns did for you then after you backstabbed them and we raised you higher than they did?"

"The king raised me."

"And who do you think made sure he kept you in that position? His wives?" He turned to Edward. "Tell him Ned, it's time our darling nephew knows the harsh truth of the world. It's how you will get to keep your head."

"How dare you!"

"Your Majesty Thomas is tired. He clearly doesn't know what he is saying." He gave his younger brother a hard glance but Thomas was unabated.

He put his cup down and rose. "I didn't tell you to rise." Their royal nephew said but Thomas didn't listen. "You gave me one thousand untrained boys that I told you couldn't be trained. Half of them only came because you promised them charity in spite of your claims that you don't give charity. The other half came because they were escaped convicts whose only crime was to beg in the streets. What did you expect me to do? I am an Admiral nephew, not a miracle worker. Untrained boys can't be trained in less than three months besides they are thirteen and most of them hungry and looking for work. A war is no place for them."

"It is not a war, it is a battlefield. A battlefield you were supposed to win! Lord Northumberland tell your son he shall be assigned to his new post, my uncle here is growing too old."

"Your Majesty, lord Sudeley is one of your best commanders. It is not wise you give his post to an inexperienced youth-" Cranmer said but the king cut him off.

"I am not giving his post to an inexperienced commander. His Grace's son has proven himself in battle and he's younger than my uncle."

"Young is not the same as having experience." Thomas glanced at the Duke of Northumberland, John Dudley. "How many years of experience does your son have Your Grace, two, three, maybe four?"

Ned and Mary could not help but grin at Thomas' jest.

"He's given the king four victories."

"A stroke of luck. I fought with men who won twice as much and they all perished under my sword."

"They were old, my son is not. It's very hard for men our age to admit we've passed our prime"

Thomas laughed louder. "Dudley you are truly an imbecile and you are making the king look like one too for swallowing your lies."

The room became silent. "What did you say?" Their nephew asked after a long pause wringing his hand in the air, nearly hitting his uncle and namesake, Ned Seymour when he lowered it.

Ned wore a tired look on his face as the king's hand nearly fell on him. Mary took his hand and squeezed it as if to say it was okay but his look of annoyance remained.

"I am the king of England you whore monger! It is thanks to me you are even sitting in that chair and married to that old washed up widow and enjoying her fortunes! I could give up her states and your daughter in marriage if I wanted to. That's right, I can marry her to His Grace's son right now and there is nothing you can do about it."

He turned around but Thomas' voice brought him back. "Do it and you will lose the only valuable support you have ever had."

"You are a poor baron whose only riches is thanks to being related to me through my mother. I am getting sick and tired of all you Seymours thinking they are gold because of your hair and intellect but you are not gold uncle, you do not even have the gold coloring. You are not even half the man, you and all the Seymours, my father was. If he hadn't fucked my mother you wouldn't be here."

"Neither would you nephew and watch your mouth. I may have been a whore monger but your mother was my sister and the only sister I ever gave a damn for. Watch how you speak." He said giving him a chilling smile, his eyes sparkling with murder.

"You will watch your tongue or I will cut it. I will not let you speak to the king that way."

Ned decided to speak up again. "Your Majesty, my brother did not mean his words but he makes a valuable point. His skill in combat is unmatched by anyone."

"You are all dismissed and you uncle" He turned to his namesake. "I won't have you defying me in my council chambers ever again or I will have your post as well."

Take it -Ned Seymour wanted to say. I am not afraid of your death threats. Thomas is right. We are the only reason you are sitting in this throne.

Ned would have his chance to speak to Edward when the time was right and make him see how valuable they were to him. He turned to Mary when the three of them entered his outer chamber. "Now you see what you've unleashed on our country."

"I am not the one who spoke with a loose tongue-" Mary began to say but her brother in law cut her off.

"My nephew needs to hear the truth."

"He needs to pampered or else he will be swayed by the Duke of Northumberland or his faction. Are you really that stupid that you can't see that?"

"I can see that sister but it is you who are too stupid to see that nothing our darling brother, your darling brother actually does is an accident. You see the truth is he hates us, he hates me, your husband and above all he hates you because no one has interfered more in his reign than you."

"Edward are you going to let this piece of trash speak to me like this?!"

"I don't know who is crazier you or your brother." Thomas said. "I can now see why you love him so much sister, you two could pass off as mother and son if you weren't brother and sister already. Must be something in the Tudor line that makes you all so crazy."

"Edward!"

"Enough! Both of you are behaving like children. Thomas is right, your brother is a loose canon and you Mary can't keep him in a leash. You smother him with care and tell him only what he needs to hear. I do not approve my brother's methods but he said what needed to be said."

Thomas looked at Mary triumphantly.

Ned rolled his eyes and sighed in frustration. Here they were, his brother and wife behaving like children while he and Dudley were the true power behind the throne and both at odds with each other.

Edward was proving harder to harder, Dudley knew it, he knew it but there was nothing they could do. His mind began to weigh their options.

After Thomas left for his wife and Mary went to visit their children who had been placed in the royal nursery, he went to his bedchamber. He poured himself wine. Mary had taken to drinking more these past few days since the talk emerged that her eldest daughter could be betrothed to the duke of Cleves again.

He sighed. She was angry because he encouraged it. She told him he was no better than Philip for doing that but she was blind if she thought that he would waste this opportunity.

Luckily for him the Mary she married was not the same resentful cold-hearted frigid woman who married Philip.

He thought about her old husband. It was so unfortunate they never found a body and more so that he was torn off to pieces by that lioness. Oh well ... something good came out of it. His children unlike the ones by her first husband loved her -even if she never saw it- and they loved him as well.

Ned would never say it but he had warmed to those two children. He wished his wife would see how bright they were but her coldness had driven them into the eldest Grey girl's arms. If Mary continued with her resentment for them she would find herself mother in law to the future Duchess of Bavaria and her tenure as Regent for her son's lands gone in an instant.

He chuckled. His wife was so smart but so stupid as well. The years hadn't been kind towards her, they had hardened her and given her a taste of real life more than they had given to any other royal, but sadly they hadn't given her any wisdom. She knew a lot about letters, theology, but she didn't know how to apply that knowledge to help her brother's cause. All she was interested in was keeping Edward in power but she failed to see that it was more than fear that kept people in line, it was respect.

"Mother?"

His eyes snapped open and went to the outer chamber. It was Henri.

"Oh Your Grace, I was hoping to find my lady mother. Is she here?"

"No she is not."

"Oh, can I wait for her then?"

"Make yourself comfortable."

Henri sat on the chair nearby. She shifted uncomfortably.

"May I ask what is wrong?"

"Have you ever been jealous Your Grace?"

"Depends. What are you jealous of?"

She bit her lip, looked down then up meeting her stepfather's eyes. His eyes told her she could trust him. "It's lady Jane, everyone thinks she is so holy including my aunt but I don't like her."

"Why is that? Your cousin is one of the most talented women in the country."

"Studious yes but not talented. She spends more time preaching the gospel than she does helping people."

"My lady you will always find people who enjoy more royal favor. Most of the times it is undeserved. Your cousin in this case has done to warrant your jealousy."

"It's not that she's better than me, it's that she thinks she has to convert everyone."

"My lady people are always going to have a need to convert someone, we are in a religious war, everyone is out to save everyone's soul."

"Why? Because we will burn in hell? Hell doesn't exist."

"Careful Henrietta, people have been killed for saying less."

She shrugged.

"Why don't you do something nice-"

"Like what?"

"Let me finish first. Give her a present, something she will like and compliment her afterwards."

"Do I have to mention how I love god too?"

"That would be wise. There is no reason why you shouldn't." She looked away. "Does it make you uncomfortable when I say god, why?"

"Because it is all everyone talks about here. It is all my mother talked about at one point. At least she doesn't anymore but it doesn't make it better." Seeing his look of disapproval she quickly added "It is not that I don't believe in god, I do but I don't believe following one church or another will get you in hell or heaven."

"You are young, it is natural you have doubts but when you grow older you will see there is only one way we can worship Him." Seeing she was about to talk, he smiled and quickly said -"Let us go to your uncle's library, I heard you like to read the old Norse tales." She nodded and they quickly went.


End file.
